by Lynn Hagen
“I don’t know what’s going on or why I was back there, but I need to go.” Snooke threw his legs over the side of the couch, tossed the blanket aside, and stood. His hand automatically went to his head as he weaved a little.
“I think you should rest. You’re in no condition to go anywhere.” Kane could see how pale Snooke had become just from standing. Maybe he should call Phoenyx. What if he had a concussion?
“I’m fine.” Snooke waved Kane off and headed toward the door.
Kane blocked him from leaving with his larger frame. “No, you are not fine.”
“Are you forcing me to stay?” Snooke asked as he waited for Kane to move. If Kane didn’t know any better, Snooke was running scared from him.
“I’d never force you to do anything. It would always be your choice.” Kane stepped aside, reluctantly letting Snooke go. His fingers itched to pull the slim man into his arms as he passed him on his way to the door, but he could see Snooke wasn’t being receptive at the moment.
“Thanks for pulling my ass out of whatever mess I was in,” Snooke said before opening the door and closing it behind him.
“Shit,” Kane cursed as he walked over to the couch and folded the blanket. He tossed it onto the back of the sofa before grabbing the washcloth and walking to the bathroom and tossing it into the hamper. What the hell was the guy’s problem?
Kane stood in the bathroom and stared at his reflection. Did he change from the barbeque to the apartment? Did Snooke all of the sudden find him unattractive?
He pulled the skin below his eyes to look at his copper-brown eyes. Nope, nothing new. Kane opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out, wiggling it around. It looked the same as this morning.
He was still extremely tall. At six-eight, he would notice a growth spurt or shrinkage. He ran his hands over his biceps, seeing no change. They were still well developed. His mahogany-brown hair still sat at his shoulders, the auburn highlights noticeable in the florescent lighting of the bathroom.
Kane blew out a breath. “So why did he run?” he asked his reflection.
Kane ran his hands threw his hair as he stared at his mirror image.
“So what the hell is his problem? I’m interested. He’s interested. One plus one equals two sweaty men wrestling naked in bed. I don’t get it.”
Kane cut the lights in the bathroom as he walked out. He was more than ready to twist the sheets with Snooke. If only he could pin the man down, literally.
“They say it’s a sign that you’re going mad when you start talking to yourself.” Rainerio chuckled from the living room.
“They say you can get shot sneaking into someone’s apartment, too.” Kane dropped down on the couch and grabbed the blanket from the back, holding it close to his face so he could smell Snooke’s scent on it.
What the hell was wrong with him? Kane tossed the blanket aside, seeing Rainerio watching him. “What?”
“Either you use really good detergent or someone has your nose wide open,” he teased.
“Neither. What do you want besides feeling the need to harass me?” Kane was looking at Rainerio, but all he could see was Snooke. He envisioned Snooke on his knees in front of him taking the head of his cock in between those plump red lips. He shuddered at the image.
“You haven’t heard a word I’ve said.” The warrior snapped his fingers, trying to gain Kane’s attention.
“I did, too. You were talking about detergent.” Kane crossed his arms over his chest and smirked at Rainerio.
“I said that ten minutes ago. What did I just say to you?” Rainerio challenged.
Had the warrior been talking? Hell if Kane knew. He was too busy fantasizing about Snooke and those luscious lips of his. “Panahasi?”
Rainerio snorted and shook his head. “Not even close. So who has you sniffing behind them? Is it that skinny guy that hangs around Chris, Snooke?”
“You still haven’t told me what you’re doing here?” Kane kicked his feet up on the glass coffee table and began fingering the blanket. He wasn’t about to tell anyone how “wide open” Snooke really had him. Besides, he still had the job of pinning the guy down to have a decent conversation with him.
Oh god, the image of Kane pinning Snooke down took over. He could just imagine what it would be like to fuck that tight little ass of his. To have Snooke begging for Kane to…
“There you go again.” Rainerio snapped his fingers. “Demon realm to Kane. Hello?”
“What?” Kane blinked and looked over at the warrior again. “Will you stop interrupting me?” Geez, can’t a guy fantasize in peace these days? Why was Rainerio fucking with him?
“You got it bad.” Rainerio chuckled.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The warrior pointed over at Kane’s crotch. “Hard-on, dude. You can’t tell me you weren’t thinking about the little white-headed demon. The proof is standing up and saluting.”
Kane growled and tossed the blanket over his lap. “Will you get on with telling me why you’re here?”
“I told you twice, but you weren’t listening,” Rainerio pointed out.
Had he? Damn, Kane needed to focus. “Then tell me once more, smartass.”
“Are you sure you’re going to listen this time?” Rainerio quirked a brow as he stared at Kane.
Smug bastard. “I’m listening, go on.” Don’t think about Snooke.
“Torky and Ace Boogey have been taken off watch duty. Panahasi put a troll down by the river to watch for the crystal. He wants us”—Rainerio pointed between himself and Kane—“to go have a talk with Diablo. See if he’s heard anything.”
“He wants us to go now?” Kane tossed the blanket aside, his erection finally flaccid.
“Unless you want to wait until the thief figures out how to use the crystal and releases every prisoner in the detention cells.” Rainerio frowned as he looked over at Kane. “You don’t want that, do you?”
Was Rainerio serious? “No.” He wanted to wait to see if Snooke came back. That would have to wait judging by the look on Rainerio’s face. “I don’t want that.” Kane stood and headed toward his bedroom, the room that had the darkest shadows.
He could hear Rainerio behind him. Kane shut the lights off and walked toward the corner by the closet, walking through the shadows and coming out by the side of the Diablo’s club. He could hear the music vibrating through the brick walls from the outside.
They walked around front, seeing the centaur-shifter in human form standing by the door with his arms crossed over his massive chest. “Hey, Diesel.” Kane waved to the bouncer as they entered the club. Diesel gave a slight nod at the pair and then studied the entranceway once again.
The usual throng of patrons sat by the stage as the drag queen, Roxy, strutted across the stage. The stripper presently on stage seemed to be everyone’s favorite. Kane had to admit that Roxy was stunning, in drag or in his everyday wear. Kane had been interested in Roxy eons ago, but the guy was too high maintenance. The performer could also work himself into a snit like nobody’s business.
Kane spotted the Demon Warrior, Wayland, sitting at a table with a twink straddling his lap. The smaller man had on extremely short shorts, his ass cheeks hanging out as Wayland’s hands rubbed all over the twink’s bared ass.
He had a feeling they were in the middle of having sex. Kane strolled over and grabbed the beer bottle sitting on the table. “Is this yours?”
“Yep.” Wayland groaned as the smaller man bounced up and down on his lap.
“Good.” Kane tilted the bottle back and took a strong tug on the neck of the bottle. He’d eat and drink after people he knew and trusted. Like the warriors and Chris. But from the looks of the blond sitting on Wayland’s lap—while eyeing another man across the room—Kane wouldn’t touch anything the guy had his lips on.
Kane joined Rainerio at the bar as he finished Wayland’s beer. “Where’s Diablo?” he asked as he looked around. There were plenty of people pushed up to the
bar, but Diablo, the owner, was usually behind the bar serving and watching everything that was going on in his club.
“Good question. I haven’t seen him yet.”
Kane’s eyes swept the club as he looked for Diablo, the dragon-shifter. His eyes swung back to the guy sitting at a table smiling at him. Kane saw the lust in the dark pupils from across the room but, for once, had no interest. The stranger wasn’t Snooke.
How the hell had he fallen so hard, so fast, in just a few short days? The demons, as far as Kane knew, were the only paranormal creatures that didn’t know who their mates were. There was no pull or a need to be near someone. They had to fuck until their cocks fell off to find the one destined to be theirs. It was a lonely feeling when you finished having sex with someone and found that they weren’t your mate. Kane hated it, as most demons did, but their race was desperate to find their mates.
So to pass up a romp with the man lustfully eyeing him from across the room was like passing up the chance to see if he was Kane’s mate. But for some crazy-ass reason, Kane felt he would be betraying Snooke if he indulged in a little skin-on-skin time.
If he didn’t fuck Snooke soon and get the indigo-eyed man out of his system, Kane could end up alone for a very long time. He wondered if the feeling he had for Snooke meant that they were mates, but Kane brushed it off as being a warrior and wanting to protect the man.
Maybe they were mates? Kane was willing to find out, if only he could keep Snooke from running.
Chapter Two
Snooke sat at the table in the Melting Pot. He listened as Marino talked about the two shifters that had encroached on his territory and was trying to sell placebo narcotics. Snooke was against drugs period, but it ticked him off even more when he thought of someone selling fake drugs that were probably laced with household cleaners. Some people had the soul of the devil and the conscious of a pea.
Snooke looked around, half-listening as he thought of Kane.
All he thought about was Kane. All he talked about to his friend Chris was Kane. All Snooke craved was Kane. So why in the hell did he panic and leave when given the opportunity to be alone with Kane back in the warrior’s apartment?
One of the major reasons was because Snooke didn’t want the warrior involved in his messed-up life. It was bad enough Snooke didn’t walk the straight and narrow, but Kane didn’t deserve to get caught up in his mess.
But those copper-brown eyes were all Snooke could see at the moment. His head snapped up when Marino called his name. He needed to focus, get Kane off the brain. “Huh?”
“Look at him.” Marino laughed as he pulled his elf boy-toy close to him and pointed in Snooke’s direction as he chuckled to the men around him. “Some girl has his mind turning to mush. Who is she?”
He. “You know I don’t roll like that. No chick is going to have me all twisted up.” Snooke gave a hallow laugh, void of any humor as he looked at Marino’s goons around the table. The large demons always creeped him out. “I may bang the chicks, but none of them have my head twisted.”
Although Marino kept a male elf like a man kept a mistress at his side, the guy would blow a gasket if he found out Snooke was gay. Marino was fucked in the head like that. Do as I say, not as I do. What a screwed-up motto. And the really fucked-up part was that he only applied this motto to Snooke.
“Good. I want you to keep your head on straight. You have work to do, and I don’t want no dame screwing with it.” Marino sat back, looking like he owned the world. Snooke glanced from one man to the next wondering if any of them could see past his façade.
None of them were paying any attention to Snooke. This was good. He began to think again, for the hundredth time, how he ended up in Kane’s apartment and how he had been beaten up. As hard as Snooke tried, nothing came to him.
“Go on, get out of here and do your job.” Marino waved Snooke off as the large demon ran his hand up and down the elf’s arm. He could see the elf shiver, but Snooke knew for a fact it was out of repulsion. The slight grimace on the elf’s face proved it. Why the elf stayed when Marino made his skin crawl, Snooke could never figure out. Elves could shimmer in and out at whim.
Snooke forgot about the elf as he walked out of the Melting Pot. His mind once again raced back to the one person he couldn’t stop thinking about. He stood just outside the door, wondering if Kane would welcome a visit from him when he saw Kane and another warrior, Rainerio, step out of Diablo’s.
Snooke began to panic, his eyes darting around for a way to escape. He couldn’t allow either man to see him here. If they ever made the connection to who Marino was and where he hung out, they would connect Snooke to it as well.
He plastered his back against the door as the two warriors rounded the corner and walked down the alley that separated Diablo’s from Malcor’s Melting Pot. Snooke crept along quietly until he was at the edge of the brick building and then peered around. The two warriors were talking, but Snooke couldn’t make out what they were saying.
He watched as the pair walked toward a darkened shadow and then vanished. Snooke felt relief flood him as he walked down the alleyway. He crept over to where the warriors had disappeared. He knew they traveled through the shadows, but Snooke wanted to stand where Kane had just been while he thought of the man who haunted his every thought. In a small way, it made him feel closer to the guy.
“You look awfully guilty standing there.”
Snooke spun to see the neighborhood know-it-all standing behind him. What the hell was Torky doing here? He straightened, squaring his shoulders as he pulled a calm demeanor out of his ass. “What the fuck do you want?”
“I saw you coming out of Malcor’s. And I saw you watching Kane and Rainerio like you were hiding from them. I wonder if they’d be interested to know these facts. You think I don’t know what goes on in the Melting Pot.” Torky stepped closer, a hateful glare glittering in his eyes. “I may be a lot of things. Money-hungry, nosey bastard, et cetera, et cetera, but I won’t have you plotting against them.”
“You’re talking out the side of your head. I’m not plotting a fucking thing.” Snooke brushed past the nosey bastard. “You can tell them what you want. None of it is true.” Fuck, now what? That’s all he needed. For the neighborhood know-it-all to go running to Kane about what he’d just witnessed. Snooke turned and asked Torky in a low voice. “I thought people had to pay you for the info?”
“I am known to be generous from time to time, and I’m feeling mighty generous at the moment.” Torky smiled at Snooke. The smile was anything but friendly. It was taunting and knowing. Snooke had to get to Kane before Torky and give a plausible story of why he’d been there. Bring it up casually somehow.
“Later…spy.” Torky walked past Snooke as he stood there wondering what Torky was going to do.
There was one flaw in Snooke’s plan to get to Kane first. He didn’t know the way in to the warriors’ apartment building. It wasn’t like any other building around. You couldn’t just waltz up in there. You had to know how to get in. And Snooke hadn’t a clue. Leaving was easy. Getting in was the hard part.
Snooke took off down King Kennedy, busting a right onto Broadview. He headed straight for Chris’s house and prayed like hell along the way that Chris was home.
Snooke was out of breath and panting by the time he jogged up the front steps and rang the doorbell. He glanced around as he tried to slow his racing heart and get his breathing back to normal.
Yes! Hondo opened the door, smiling down at Snooke. Damn these warriors were big as fuck. “Hey, can I come in?”
“Always.” Hondo stepped aside, allowing Snooke to enter. It amazed him how Hondo went from wanting to kill him to being friendly as hell in such a short span. Hondo had pinned him as being a spy, and then when Snooke saved Chris’s life, wham—instant friend.
Snooke was still pissed that one of Marino’s men had chased him and Chris down. Thank goodness neither of them was killed and the fucker was in a detention cell now. Oh yeah, tha
nkfully Marino called the hit off, too. That was a big plus.
“Is Chris here?”
“He ran to his job for a moment. Is there anything I can help with?”
Snooke thought of the cookies from the trash Hondo had tried to serve him the first night he had come around and stayed for dinner. He shuddered. Although Hondo was acting cool now, no thanks.
“I needed to ask him something.”
“Shoot.”
Should he? “I need to get in touch with Kane.” He was desperate enough to ask Hondo right about now, even as he thought about the cookies.
“That’s all?” Hondo chuckled as he pulled his cell phone out. “Easily done.”
Snooke found himself chewing his thumbnail—something he never had done before—as he waited for Hondo to talk to Kane.
“Hey, I have someone here looking for you.” Hondo winked at Snooke. “Damn, how’d you guess?”
Snooke gulped as he watched Kane walk down the steps from the upstairs. Did the guy run? It was so cool and creepy how the warriors did that. Although he’d seen it done a few times before, it was still weird. Snooke wondered why only the warriors had the ability to walk through shadows but quickly pushed the thought aside. He was too busy looking at the most gorgeous man alive.
“What’s up?” Kane nodded once at Snooke, his lust-filled eyes perusing Snooke’s body. Snooke gulped and looked over at Hondo, who stood there smirking. He glanced back at Kane, wondering what the warrior was thinking about.
“Is there somewhere we can talk?”
“Sure.” Kane smiled and held his arm out. Snooke took a step forward and placed his hand in Kane’s, feeling the warm palm and noticing how Kane’s hand swallowed his. He felt so damn dainty next to Kane. “Follow me,” Kane said in a deep timbre that had Snooke’s cock filling.
They walked through the kitchen and out to the backyard. Kane held onto his hand as they walked toward a shadow. He’d gone through the portal at the Black River, but using a shadow was a new experience. Would it hurt? Kane must have felt his hesitation.