by Darcy Town
“Sorry. What did you need to say?”
“I…I…” He choked on the words. What was wrong with him? He leaned back and stared at the moon.
Ravil recognized his look of guilt and anxiety. She spoke quickly, “Rake, I need to say something first.”
Rake nodded. “All right.”
“It’s about earlier.” She reached for his hand. “No! Do not plug your ears, we need to talk.”
Rake closed his eyes and went limp on the grass. “I know. Ravil, I am so sorry.” Shame and black depression overwhelmed him. “What I did…I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I don’t have any excuse, I…I never wanted to hurt you! I don’t know why you’re even talking to me.”
She scooted over to his side and interlaced their fingers. “You didn’t hurt me, Rake.”
Rake wanted to separate their hands. He sullied her, but he couldn’t pull his hand away; it felt too good. “Maybe not physically. I will never do that again.”
“Rake, I...” She blushed. “I’d never done anything like that before, but I didn’t find it unpleasant.”
Rake swallowed. “Please don’t say that.”
“Why? It’s true.”
“No.” He shook his head. “No, it’s not.”
“Yes it is.” She leaned over him and put a hand on his chest. She looked down at him. “I feel for you, Rake.”
Rake’s hands shook. “Ravil, you’re a kid.”
She kissed a bruise on his chest. “No, I’m not.”
Her kiss burned and drew out the heat in his skin. A darkness of need and possession grew inside his chest; it doubled the force that would bring about something base in him. He grabbed her shoulders and pushed. “Ravil, you’re not able to think clearly. All of this danger has muddled your mind.”
Ravil moved with the push and kissed his stomach, her lips brushed each cut he had incurred. “Am too.”
Words fought to slip out of his mouth, but Rake wanted her to continue. This was different wasn’t it, her being in charge? No. Rake clenched his jaw. She was not a woman in possession of her faculties. Ravil did not kiss with a purpose as a woman would. She didn’t even know what she was inciting. She was innocent. He ground his teeth.
Ravil kissed below Rake’s bellybutton. He curled his toes. He wanted this more than anything. He watched her. She smiled against his stomach; she seemed to want it too. She had made the choice to do this; he hadn’t made it for her. If she wanted it, who was he to deny? Now if she would just go a bit lower…
Rake remembered what Keto had said about her age and consent. He gasped. “Ravil, I order you to take three steps back!”
Ravil jumped and landed on her butt. “Rake?”
Rake adjusted his skirt and sat up. “Stay back! Do not let us touch.”
“What? Why?”
Pleasure moved through his limbs like a restless animal. He stared at her lips, soft pink lips, lips that had been on him. He wanted them. He could feel each mark, each place she had caressed. He groaned; he would grab her and make her lips his. He would show her where to place them and how to use them. He got on all fours. He had to have her.
Ravil took a step back to stay compliant with his command. “Rake, rescind this stupid order immediately!”
“No.” He fought the urge to leap at her. She was all he could see, her mouth, her hands, her pale skin.
Ravil glared. “You’ll rescind the order yourself once you’re fully in thrall. This is stupid, Rake, idiotic, foolish! I told you about Navigators, explained what happens to males when they get around a compatible female of age. I will accept you.”
“I’m not a Navigator, Ravil! I’m a goddamn human! A Waster!” Rake stared at his hands. He shook his head. “This is not the same. It isn’t!”
“I don’t know how, but it is the same!” Ravil pointed at him. “This is how our males get, Rake. I know what I’m talking about!”
“This is not the same!” Rake looked up at her, he tensed. “There’s something wrong with me, something broken and damaged. Telling me it’s a Navigator thing is a way for you to make what happened to you okay, but it’s not okay! What I did, what I want to do, is not right! Do not make excuses for my behavior just because we are bonded! You should get away from me, leave while you can.”
“Rake, you cannot do that to me!” Ravil burst into tears. “You said you wouldn’t hurt me like that! You said we were a team!”
“We are but...” He covered his ears. The sound of her wail was physically painful. “Stop it, Ravil!”
“You stop it!” She dropped to the ground as he leaned back. “Can’t you understand what I said? I am not a child, Rake. I am a consenting adult, and I want to be with you!”
Rake shook his head to dispel her words. “You…you can’t consent. You can’t!”
“I can too!”
“Stop saying that! You’re tempting the devil!”
“I don’t care, it’s the truth!”
“You don’t even know your age!”
“Oro is figuring it out,” Ravil spit out in desperation. “He’s running a calculation to convert my time alive to Earth years.”
“He is?” Rake blinked. “We can find out?”
“Yes! Not that it matters.”
“Yes it does. Did he have any preliminary ideas?”
“Between fifteen and twenty-three.”
“Fifteen!” Rake punched the ground. “That’s no better!”
“Fifteen is consenting in a lot of places.”
“Not America.”
“We’re not in America!”
Rake made a face. “Details!”
“You are infuriating!” She pointed to her body. “My current form is displaying to males that I am ready to breed, that is all that this stage exists for. In my culture, I am ready!”
“In mine, you’re not!” He folded his arms.
“Rake, do I look like a child? Be honest!”
He looked away. “No.”
“Then what is your fucking problem?”
“You could just be mature for your age!”
“You can’t say that without actually knowing what my stupid Earth age is! Fuck, this is idiotic! I am an alien, Rake, alien! I wasn’t born on this planet! Why should it matter to my kind how many fucking times your rock has rotated around its star?”
Rake set his jaw. “It just does.”
Ravil went red in the face. “You’ll see when Oro figures it out!”
He jumped to his feet. “Fine! We’ll see what he says!” His outward appearance was annoyed and upset, but in his heart, he hoped with every fiber of his being that she was twenty-three, even eighteen, he’d probably settle for seventeen if he had to. He blocked off the thoughts before they dropped the number any lower. He stared over her head. “Let’s go to Oro.”
She put her hands on her hips. She raised an eyebrow. “I’m waiting.”
He eyed the distance between them. “Can’t we zip around without you touching me?”
“No,” Ravil lied. She didn’t have to tell him the truth, and now that he was being annoying she certainly wasn’t going to.
“Fine, order rescinded.” He held out his hand. “For now.”
Ravil stepped over. “How can we be a team if you don’t treat me like an adult?”
He sighed. “You’re an adult in other matters, just not this one.”
“That doesn’t even make any sense!”
“I’m an adult. I don’t have to make sense!” Rake grimaced. “We’re leaving!”
“Fine!” She grabbed him by the hair and wrenched, sending them both into the blue.
***
Lincoln buckled himself into an airplane seat, waiting for takeoff. He hated seatbelts, very restricting. He grabbed bottled water and took a calming deep breath. He hated flying on these archaic airplanes, going low speed from place to place. He closed his eyes.
Kennedy spit up warm milk into his cup. “Off plane!”
Lincoln opened an eye. “We ju
st got on.”
“He’s in city again!” Kennedy shredded his seat belt, climbed over a passenger into the aisle. He pushed people out of his way. “We have to go now!”
Lincoln snapped his seat belt in two and raced after him. “Kennedy! Are you sure?”
“Yes!” Kennedy kicked open the airplane door as the stewardesses attempted to hold him back. He leapt onto the tarmac as the plane began to roll.
Lincoln jumped after him and took off. “Kennedy, stop making a scene! You’re being very bad!”
Kennedy ignored Lincoln and took to all fours, dislocating and shifting his legs to allow for sprinting at high speeds. Lincoln hissed and did the same, ignoring those that were on the ground. He’d beat Kennedy for this later, but time could be of the essence.
***
Rake and Ravil appeared in Rake’s room. They hit the bed and bounced. Rake rolled off Ravil and looked around his bedroom. “Pretty damn accurate.”
“That’s because I am pretty damn awesome.” She stabbed her finger at his nose. “Don’t you forget it.”
“I won’t.” Rake bit at her finger. “You’re a badass, Ravil.”
“I am.” She tried not to smile at the compliment; she was still pissed at him.
He made a face and licked his lips. “Weird, that feeling is back.”
“What feeling?”
Rake propped himself up on his elbows. He rubbed his lips with his hand. “The fuzzy tingly feeling.” He looked her over. “I’ve been having these hallucinations of this feline guy in a suit, and every time I do I get this weird buzz ever since I bit him. I’ve been having hallucinations of my dead girlfriend too though, but not any buzzing with her.”
Ravil grabbed his chin. “A feline guy in a suit?”
“I know it’s stupid.” He looked embarrassed. “It’s just due to the medication Keto had me on.” He touched his face. “He kept coming to draw blood from my cheek with these cat claws, and his name was Marx. Weird, right?”
“Marx? We have to go!” Ravil pushed Rake off the bed. “Now!”
“Why? We just got here.”
“Rake, Marx is the Hunter that killed Sirana!” She put on a pair of flip-flops. “Come on!”
“He’s a hallucination, Ravil.”
Ravil slapped him across the face. “No, he’s not!”
He rubbed his cheek. “What was that for?”
“I’m going to hit you every time you’re stupid! I’ve decided I will beat sense into you!”
“Do I get to return the favor?”
“What do you think?” Ravil slipped on a shirt. “Now take me seriously!”
“I do! I am!” He touched his tingling mouth. “But why does my mouth feel funny?”
“I don’t know!” She opened the door a crack; the house appeared deserted. “No one is around.”
Rake pulled on a black tank top. “They might have gone after me after they dealt with Virote’s guys.”
“But the Hunter remains, waiting.”
He frowned. “He’s the guy wearing a suit, with gloves on and yellow eyes?”
“Sharp teeth, long hollow claws, long hair, and androgynous in appearance. Weren’t you listening to what I said earlier about the different subspecies?”
“There was a lot to take in! I can’t remember it all on the first go! Give me a break okay?”
Ravil stomped on his foot. “No more breaks.” She grabbed his neck. “I don’t get any, you don’t get any.” She eyed the cut on his cheek. “They have your fluids now. Great!”
“But you said the one after you was just a subspecies tracker.”
“He is. I don’t know why he took them. Did he tell you anything?”
Rake swallowed. “I don’t really know…I was in the middle of withdrawal, Ravil!”
She pulled her hair back into a ponytail. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. “We’re going to have to leave and not come back here, ever. Do you understand? Staying puts your friends in danger.”
“I understand.” Rake moved her away from the door. He grabbed a knife from the wall and slipped it in his belt. He stepped out of the room, nothing moved. He crept out to the center stairs and looked down towards the first floor. Ravil followed him.
Evgeniy stood on the landing, sulking and alone. The front door behind him was closed. “Good, you’re alive.”
Rake took in Evgeniy’s appearance. “What’s going on, Czar?”
“We have situation outside.”
“Virote?”
“No, those men are dead. This is worse.”
Ravil stepped out beside Rake, her eyes darting around. “Where is it?”
Evgeniy watched her look around. “A thing, a man I guess, has Rat. They and others are on porch. He’s been waiting for your return, Rake.”
Ravil looked at Rake. “Your return?”
Rake fingered his knife. “What’s their status?”
“All tied to chairs except for me. He holds Rat in arms.”
“Is he threatening to kill her?”
Evgeniy looked highly uncomfortable. “It likes Rat, but I do not get impression that extends to letting her go where its prey is involved.”
“Prey is everything.” Ravil pointed to her chest. “But I am its prey, not you. What are we going to do now?”
Rake shrugged. “Nothing else to do but greet it.”
She grabbed his arm. “Rake, no! It will kill you and when you die, so do I remember!”
A knock on the front door made them turn towards it. Evgeniy opened the door and stepped back.
Marx peered in and saw Rake and Ravil. “Both at once. Look, my little rat.” He lifted Tasanee up to let her see. “Your friends are back.”
Ravil hissed. “Let her go, Hunter!”
Marx pulled Tasanee to his chest and licked her forehead. “No, mine.”
Tasanee elbowed Marx. “I said cut that tongue shit out already!”
Marx sighed happily. “I love your raised voice.”
Rake held his hands up and took a few steps down the stairs. “What do you want, Marx?”
“I want the girl…Ravil.” Marx gazed at Tasanee. “But do not worry, my little rat. I do not want her sexually. The other two want you, Rake.”
“Two?” Ravil gulped. “There are three of you?”
Marx nodded in her direction. “Yes and Kennedy has your mark, Rake.”
Rake made a face. “What does that mean?”
Ravil held onto the banister to keep from falling over. “Rake, that’s what the blood they took was for! They have an individual tracker on you.”
Marx smiled. “Yes. This is how we found you.”
“Swell.” Rake looked to Marx. “So how does this go down?”
Marx held Tasanee tighter and stepped inside the house. He closed the door behind him. “You give me the girl and I will harm no one. You can then run as you choose or remain and wait for Lincoln and Kennedy. Kennedy can find you anywhere, so you might as well wait for him and go with them peacefully.”
“I don’t want to give you the girl, she’s mine.” Rake pulled out his Bowie knife. “I also don’t want you holding my friend like that and doing to her whatever it is that you’re doing. She doesn’t like it.”
Marx pulled back his lips to reveal sharp teeth. “Two separate matters. On the latter, you have no say; it is between her and me. On the former.” Marx eyed Ravil. “We can duel for her.”
Ravil squeaked. “No! You cannot duel a Waster, Hunter!”
“But he’s not Waster, is he Ravilaea.” Marx looked Rake up and down. “Lincoln called, said the prey had jumped continents, interesting, yes? Then he calls me just now, he’s jumped again, back here. What do I see here but a Navigator and the man we seek. Not a Navigator himself, yet you have moved him and he survives outside a protective vehicle.” He smiled. “Becomes a Waster no longer, Ravil. Your people are talentless no longer, Rake.”
“Still you cannot duel him, he has no offensive talents.” She looked to Rake. �
��If you die, I die!”
Rake nodded. “I know, Ravil.”
“A blood bond.” Marx grinned. “This becomes more interesting. Lincoln will be overjoyed to find that out.” He smelled Tasanee’s hair and kissed her brow. “I will need to set you aside for a moment, little rat. It is not out of a slackening of desire. If anything, a battle will make my heart beat stronger for you.”
Tasanee looked nauseous. “Hoo-fucking-ray.”
Rake played with his knife. “So what kind of duel?”
Ravil punched him in the back. “Rake, you can’t do this!”
Marx set Tasanee on her feet, but kept her wrists pinned with his good hand. Tasanee kicked at his feet. He ignored her. “Not a duel to the death, as I need Ravil alive. To the unconscious?”
“Agreed.” Rake set his knife down. “So what now?”
“I have rarely done this without death involved. I need to mentally prepare myself not to kill you.”
“Rake, don’t!” Ravil held onto his arm. “You do not know what you’re getting into.”
Rake smiled at her. “Well Bebette, Mr. Marx here can explain the rules to me since I am a dumb human who doesn’t understand anything.”
Marx nodded. “Quite. For this occasion, may we step outside? I find your street a perfect venue. These inside quarters are cramped, and I may land a hit out of place and break your neck too easily.”
Rake gestured. “After you.”
Marx bowed slightly. “Though it would pain me to do so, should you leave I will disembowel and eat all of your friends, the exception being the little rat.” He gazed at Tasanee fondly. “She is special to me.”
“Good to know.”
Marx stepped outside with Tasanee in tow. Evgeniy followed. Rake and Ravil trailed them. They stepped out onto the porch. Oro was tied to a folding chair that sat to the right of the front door. Katarina and Danny were tied to chairs on the left side.
Danny pulled on his bonds. “What the fuck now—Rake?”
Rake glanced over at Danny. “Present.”
“What the hell is going on? Where did you come—”
“Be quiet or I will silence you.” Marx put his sunglasses on to block out the sunlight. He picked up rope left over from Evgeniy tying the others up. He tied Tasanee to the railing. “Stay.”
“Fuck you.” Tasanee snapped her teeth at the Hunter.