Chapter 20
20
Rutger ambled closer to Vargr and the two wing-soldiers he walked with, figuring he must’ve had enough time to wrestle some calmness into himself. “Why’d you chase after that ghoul guard? Do you have a death wish?”
“No.” The shrug said he might add more words.
Rutger waited. He wasn’t going to lead with his story of what he had done to Cyn by the waterfall.
“And?”
“And I thought maybe the fucker was someone I knew. His face… not sure but after thinking, he looked like that Dr. Nietz. Now wouldn’t that be one to write home about? Though he’s dead now. Judging by what the stinkers did to him.”
“They killed him?” Ahead the train tunnel widened at a platform. They were close to home.
“Not exactly. As good as. I followed until they dragged him up an elevator shaft, past the actual elevator, and trust me, squeezing him through there was not good for his health. I almost swallowed bits of him.”
“Why take him back then? I’m assuming they aimed to take him to the top.”
Again with the shrugging.
“Funny, ain’t it? If he was the doctor, he’s a pile of dead flesh now.” His gaze swung on Rutger, his wings lifting a little, settling.
Rutger knew the body tells of the winged soldiers. Here it came.
“Tell me what you did to Cyn back there. I’ve been planning to ask, once I was sure I wouldn’t rip your bloody head off.”
His smile spread, an unabandoned grin really—couldn’t stop himself. “As if you’d stand a chance. However!” He held up his palm to stop the insults and arguments Vargr was lining up, judging by the deep scowl and the opening of his mouth. “Sorry. Let’s both be calm. I did what I had to.”
“And that was?”
“Hold on. We get to exit here.” He pointed and leaped onto the platform, waited for the others to follow. Toother would fit through the main platform doors, and that led onto a wide thoroughfare. “Vargr, she was wiped out by the Lure, all bloodied from the fight and struggling against us nonstop.”
Okay, that was a small lie. She’d quieted after they washed her, even sat still while he jerked off, had looked damn fascinated. He was not telling Vargr that part.
“I did the one thing that might help, considering the nanites in us help kill the Lure effects.”
Rutger paused in the double-doored entrance to the Trainway platform to let the others go by.
As when he’d set out on the journey to the Mercantors, the thoroughfare was silent and filled with the debris of the invasion days. Funny how he always listened for the sound of crowds. On walking out here, for that first millisecond he always found the emptiness, the lack of people, a gut-wrenching surprise.
Handbags and discarded magazines, cellphones, lost shoes and stuffies, prams, shops with their electronic doors shut and the goods inside pristine. Get your Gucci for free.
He never looked in those prams. Ugliness in there. Rutger winced. Well, he had once, once only. Never again.
Babies too young to crawl had been deserted by loving parents who’d wandered off to see the Ghoul Lords. He advanced a small way into the street.
“So. Keep going. What did you do?”
“Oh. I fed her some of my come,” he said it absentmindedly, lost in the past.
Vargr’s grip on his shoulder was violent, and his snarl was raw anger.
He twisted away.
Those wings ripped open to their full span, and the others around them spread out, giving them room.
“Hey. We can’t afford to fight among ourselves. He was good to her, Vargr.” Tom was trying to do something to settle this, even though he had no clue.
From how Cyn was staring at his horns, he wondered if he’d grown a few more. His fist clenched automatically, but he relaxed them, breathed. “What would you have done? She liked it. Wanted it. And it worked.”
Waving an arm, Vargr indicated for the others to pass them by. “Move on! We can handle this. Not you.” After a few seconds, they did, walking down the street slowly with only a few last glances. Except for Cyn, of course.
She had that evil twinkle spawning in her red eyes.
“What’s this about, boys?”
Boys?
Both of them shot her an exasperated stare. Maura was loitering not far away. The others had moved further.
“We need to sort this out.”
“Did you fuck her?”
“Hell, no!”
The smug grin Cyn sported made him wish he was allowed to upend her over his knee. She’d likely claw his eyes out if he tried. He rather wanted to try.
“He didn’t screw me, no. Well…” She stuck out her tongue tip, rocking her head as she contemplated him. “Not that I recall? I would hope I’d recall that.”
“Oh shit.” Vargr swiped his hand down his face, glared at her. “Did you know he fed you his come?”
“Uhhh, no.” Her eyebrow spiked upward. “I missed that? Sheesh. If you two are planning to fight, I’ll be the referee. Look, this is not a problem. Rutger said he was helping me.” She let her ass waggle to and fro, cheekily, as she spoke.
With those tentacle leggings on, it made way more than his eyebrows rise up. His dick was joining in. Was she attempting to soothe them or stir them more?
Rutger chortled then folded his arms. “She’s your bondmate. Deal with her.”
“Later, I will.”
“I doubt that.” Her grin stayed.
Oh boy. “If you need help holding her down?—”
“Do you want me to punch you?” Strangely, after looking at them both, several times, Vargr had wound down his anger a notch or three. “You fed her come? And it worked? It fucking shouldn’t have.”
Should he put forward his theory?
“It is possible that some might be able to have two bondmates.”
Vargr went very still.
“Ignore me.” He cleared his throat. “Just a theory.”
The swish-swish and lub-dub of his heart and blood were playing interference in his temples, and he had to consciously untighten his muscles. Nothing to do here. No fight needed.
For once Cyn remained silent, and he could almost see her figuring the angles. Or had she already done that? When he was near her, it was impossible not to notice her perky nipples elevating the fabric of her heavy-metal-inspired T-shirt.
Her jacket had gone missing after the fight. And thank you whoever you are for organizing that. It never felt right to thank any lord above anymore.
“Fuck the apocalypse,” he murmured.
“What?” Vargr woke from his perplexed, what-the-fuck reverie.
“Nothing. What I did, I did out of concern for her…” Should he say this? His natural diplomacy, if he had any, had run away. “To be honest, also because I feel far more attraction to her than I should. I know you’re bondmated. I respect that. I’d never tear apart that law on a whim. And I didn’t. I didn’t fuck her. I fixed her enough until you returned. That it apparently worked—I think logic tells us it worked for a reason.” The fury in Vargr’s glare heightened. “If you’d gotten killed, I’d happily have taken your place, but that’s not relevant, unless you have another death mission in mind?
“Now, I’m moving on. It’s dangerous outside the tribe for us, all of us.”
Then he turned his back on the two of them. It was the only way he could think of to defuse what he’d just done. His fault. He should’ve held his tongue, and having Cyn take pleasure in them squaring off only made everything more dangerous. He then stopped, struck by a piece of concern that niggled.
He addressed Vargr. “Hey. Don’t let her look in any of the prams here. Okay?”
“Sure.” The beaster nodded, and he saw the man understood why.
“Good.” His heart eased a little, and he walked away, passing Little Mo where it waited in shadow.
If a pin dropped behind him, he didn’t hear it. Neither of them was about to follow him immediately. He kept going. They were adults, and he was not bondmated with Cyn, or not so anyone could recognize. Not yet.
Curiosity eventually won out, and he looked back. They hadn’t followed him yet, and Vargr was talking to Cyn. She looked small beside him, even with his wings folded in. Her hands were clasped before her as if she were a penitent nun, which was a total switch in attitude.
Vargr approached her, crowding her into a shop wall, pressing her against it with the full length of his body and his hands on her at hip and collar, and he kissed her for a very long time. Started out rough and ended up sweet, as far as he could tell.
The world heated several degrees.
That he’d ceased to breathe, took a while for Rutger to register. Finally, he turned away, went toward Tom, and picked up Maura on the way. He’d only interfere if they started fucking against said wall. They did need to get moving.
The one thing that kept him thinking most, was how quickly she changed from teasing to embarrassed or innocent. He’d noticed her do it before. The nanites? Probably. She’d only woken to them recently, and even he had his problems with those things rearranging his hormones, his body chemicals, his every damn cell, really. He was going to go pound some walls with his fists, once they reached camp.
His pulse was burning in his veins like it did when the PNT was rearing up. Luckily, he hadn’t smote Vargr like the god-monster they liked to call him might’ve done.