Chapter 8
Hawk
I s this guy for real?
I planned to hide from Sylvan and make him miss me for a couple of minutes, but instead I overheard a conversation that had my jaw on the asphalt. The boy only gave his first blowjob last night, so either he was this greedy for more and didn’t yet get the memo that I claimed him, or he was so utterly ignorant about what he agreed to.
Anger burns in my chest as I watch Sylvan follow the trucker (quite a handsome guy, I gotta admit), but the moment they disappear from sight, I sneak behind the building and dash past the trash cans, toward the large truck, where they are both headed.
I hate that despite my frustration with Sylvan, he looks like an absolute snack in the cute top. Is it really so wrong that I tried to help him at the store? I wasn’t trying to poke at his fragile ego.
It’s hard to even consider that little spat though when the guy leading Sylvan opens the back of his truck and my boy’s eyebrows rise. I move a little closer, just enough to hear the exchange. A part of me wants to barge in there already, but I need to be smart about this. I need to know where I stand.
And maybe, just maybe, I’m a little pissed off about Sylvan claiming he can take care of himself, so I want to let him try.
“Inside?” he asks in that cute accent of his I can’t pinpoint.
“Inside sounds perfect,” the trucker says, and his hand makes a little circle over Sylvan’s ass.
“Excuse me! Please don’t do that,” he says and takes a step back.
That’s when it becomes painfully obvious that Sylvan didn’t come with this trucker to satisfy some desperate need to suck more dick, and my feet carry me from behind the bushes, straight into the bastard’s personal space.
“Hey, hands where I can fucking see them!”
The trucker’s gaze darts between me and Sylvan. “I… don’t know what this is about.”
“Sure you don’t. I heard everything!”
“Look, no court will ever convict me for solicitation, because we haven’t discussed anything like that,” the trucker says, wrapping his arms across his chest, all smug. I need to wipe that expression off his filthy face.
I slam my forehead against his so fast my sunglasses fall to the asphalt, and I drag my damp mask down to glare at Sylvan as the bastard falls over, holding onto his face.
“I thought you didn’t need my help,” I grumble.
He takes a step back, hugging that damn jar of pretzels as if it’s a shield. “What are you doing? What ‘solicitation’? He wanted to give me money! And in the position I am in, accepting charity cannot be beneath me.”
The trucker is still scrambling at our feet, so I focus on my social cue-challenged boyfriend. “‘Charity’? He didn’t want to just give you money. He wanted to pay you for getting him off!”
Sylvan licks his pretty pink lips, eyes wide as if I told him there’s a third ear growing on his forehead. “I am not a harlot,” he chokes out, but I can see that his world is crumbling.
“He thought you were, and you just walked off with him. What if I didn’t notice?” I growl, but as panic passes through Sylvan’s features, the trucker pulls himself up by grabbing the open door into the cab. He’s bleeding from his nose as he faces me, but I know I’m fucked when he freezes.
“You’re that escaped—”
I have never been a thinking man. But I unlearned it even more in prison. My fist collides with his face before I can think, and he collapses to the asphalt, knocked out cold.
“Fuck…” I mumble.
Sylvan adds his own, “Fuck!” and runs his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t know. I didn’t… know,” his voice starts to tremble in a way that sets all my nerves on high alert. “I’m not stupid. I just didn’t realize—” He takes a deep breath, but a tear still spills down his cheek.
My insides wilt, and I place my hands on his shoulders, stepping over the trucker. “Of course not! Nobody knows everything, and how were you to read the signs when you’re an elven prince trapped in a different realm, right? But that is why you need my help.”
He rubs at the tears, but at least he’s not shoving my hands away. “You don’t understand. I must know how to handle all matters. I cannot go through life expecting others to catch me if I fall.”
I notice that he flinches when I squeeze my hands on his pink shoulders. He can’t be… sunburned, can he? The summer isn’t intense yet. “It’s not reasonable to avoid help when it makes sense to accept it, like when you’re too short to reach the top shelf.”
He hates it, I can see it all over his face that facing the truth is like having to bite into a lemon. “I don’t like being incompetent,” he says through gritted teeth.
At least we’re getting somewhere.
“And you’re not. But everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.”
“I don’t feel I have any strengths lately,” he says and moves his foot to avoid getting the blood from the trucker’s nose on his shoe.
This sounds like a longer conversation, and we need to get going.
I exhale and give him the keys to our car. “Look, get ready. I’ll just quickly make sure he doesn’t send the cops after us.”
Sylvan cocks his head at me with an unreadable expression. “Don’t… kill him.”
I frown and glare at the man lying on the asphalt. “What? Why would I kill him?”
Sylvan spreads one arm to the side. “Because you killed several people just yesterday .” At least he has the decency to keep his voice down. “I saw you on TV. You are being hunted. And you talk about trust? You told me you’re as tame as a lamb, and this is what I find out?”
I still, meeting his intense blue eyes. God, they’re beautiful.
And what can I possibly say in my defense? I might not have straight up lied, but I did omit the truth about my situation. “I wanted you to like me.”
He rubs his forehead as if all of this is an inconvenience. He’s not running away, nor throwing his snacks at me in an attempt to distract me. He’s either got some balls on him, or he’s that deranged. Either way, I’m taking that as a good sign.
“By the way,” I add, seeing that he isn’t yet throwing any more accusations my way. “I only killed one guy yesterday, and it was because he literally shot at me and almost killed me two months ago before that! Look!” I lift my hoodie at the side to show off the scar where he shanked me. Though I’m also hoping to distract his morals with my abs.
Sylvan points to the trucker. “Do you need help?”
I shake my head. “No, get ready to go. I’ll make sure it takes him some time to free himself. And no, I will not kill him just because he wanted to sample you,” I say and drag the dude up.
Sylvan turns around, but then hesitates and gets back to me. He pulls out the guy’s wallet and takes the cash out of it. “He deserves it, right?”
Wow. I might have found myself a real gem.
“Smart boy! I would have slapped your butt if I had any hands free,” I say and haul the limp body into the cab, which is a feat of strength even for me. Lifting weights is way easier, even much heavier ones. But limp bodies? Unreasonably difficult.
After what Sylvan just did, I’m pretty sure he’s not about to drive off and leave me behind. Though I don’t think he knows how to drive even if he wanted to do that.
I roll the trucker into the sleeper cab, tie him with a bit of hauling rope, gag him, and block the compartment from the outside to give us more time. I then jog back to the car where Sylvan is already waiting with a pensive expression.
I grin at him and open the back door to pull out my gift for him. I place the small plastic tiara on his head as soon as I’m in my seat. “For my fair prince.”
He sighs but doesn’t protest the gift nor take it off. He pulls something out of his pocket and presents it to me, looking up with the biggest, bluest puppy dog eyes I’ve ever seen.
“Sorry for making it hawk ward,” he mumbles as I stare at the pin with the bird of prey.
It takes me a long moment to realize that he’s gotten me something too, and I find myself melting. My boyfriends would usually try to give me sex, or cologne, or some other thing you could offer just anyone. This? This tells me he’s trying . “Best gift I’ve ever gotten,” I mumble and take it from him before pulling off my hat and attaching the pin to the crown.
He doesn’t shy away from me when I kiss him, and then we drive off before anyone else recognizes me. I’m kinda buzzing that Sylvan knows these things about me and still dares sit with me in the car. Could he be… The One ?
Sylvan takes a deep breath and rubs my forearm. “I ask you to disregard my tears. It is only a physical reaction. I am much tougher than I look, and I need to know the truth. Why were you in prison, and where are we actually going?”
I exhale and entwine our fingers as soon as I can. I don’t like talking about the biggest mistake of my life. In an ideal world, I would just wipe my memory and never need to acknowledge it again, but I’m not going to have that luxury, so I suck it up and speak.
“My friend was abused for years by his father and uncle. I should have thought about other options, but they were evil people, and the world is better off without them,” I tell him before taking a deep breath as the sun blinds me when the road changes direction. “We’re going to visit my family, because I’ll probably never see them again.”
Sylvan chews on that for a while, his perfect doll face a mask of absolute seriousness. “I guess some people deserve to die.”
Heat buzzes in my chest when I glance his way, because this is exactly how I feel, and aren’t common values the most important thing for two people starting a relationship? I smile at him, and while his never-ending dedication to the elf prince persona is starting to be a bit concerning, he seems sensible overall. Maybe it’s… like that defense mechanism thing I’ve heard about during a talk in prison? Maybe he’s trying to deal with something traumatic that way, and if he starts feeling safe, all will return to normal? I consider my options, and when silence stretches, I clear my throat and continue, making the decision to play up to his madness. After all, whatever story he tells me will be a regurgitation of reality.
“Could you tell me more? About your family and the place you’re from?”
His frown only deepens, but he looks no less beautiful, even though his nose and cheeks are a little sunburned. “I guess we are both criminals, so why not.”
He groans and starts struggling with the lid of his pretzel-filled jar. I wish to tear it out of his hands and help him, but I can’t do that when driving. I try to think of a way to say it that won’t hurt his self-esteem.
“How about we stop here?” I ask, slowing down when I spot a bunch of empty picnic tables. As soon as we’re out, I can open the jar for him under the pretense of grabbing some snacks for myself.
I’m surprised at how intense his scowl is.
“I cannot do this anymore!”
“Do what?”
“I cannot just sit under this scorching demon of a star!” When he points to the sky, it becomes clear he means the sun. “Even this ghastly shirt didn’t help. If anything, it made my reaction worse. My arms ache from the touch of all this brightness, and I refuse to get devoured by it.”
“That’s a bit… dramatic. If you had told me at the station, we could have gotten sunscreen. Did you always get burned so easily? Are you one of those people who are allergic to the sun?” I ask, passing the picnic tables. It’s been years since I’ve been out here, but I used to spend a lot of time in these woods. I know a place that could work better.
He huffs and pokes his tiara. “I suppose you could say I’m allergic to it. But I figured I have to bear it. No point in burdening you with my inadequacy.”
“Aren’t we bonded? Didn’t you say I’ll be your companion?” I ask, increasingly frustrated.
“Dark Companion,” he corrects me as if this was the most important issue to focus on.
“Exactly. Shouldn’t you trust me? Shouldn’t you lean on me? Why would you be in pain for no reason?”
He takes his time to consider it and I can’t believe it’s so hard for him to comprehend. “I accept your argument. I will try to be more open about my struggles so that you may alleviate them if you have the means to.”
“Thank you. It will make me feel better,” I tell him and brake as we pass an old, overgrown road I still remember. I go back, and then turn between the trees, driving over weeds growing through cracks in old asphalt. The place I’m now taking Sylvan to was the perfect spot for discreet dates when I used to meet up with a guy who lived around here.
I can only hope it hasn’t lost its charm.