Chapter 31
Matt
I spend my lunch break with Robbie in the courtyard. He packed a lunch this morning that he intended to share with Chanda, but the man didn’t come to school today, so I get to eat the extra food with Robbie. Rumors have already spread around the school among the non-humans about what I did to the Demon, but the overall reaction to those rumors bewilders and annoys me. I’ve had a lot of awkward offers for hookups. I’m pretty used to the attitude among fans of combat sports, but the offers from my peers annoy me. I have Deejay, and even though I tell them that, these kids don’t respect that. I’m so distracted by the annoyance of my non-human peers that I completely space everything Robbie says to me during lunch. I feel bad, but he doesn’t seem to notice.
My phone buzzes in my pocket just as we finish eating. I note the call is from Deejay’s phone and answer it, concerned something might have happened at home. “Deejay?”
“Hi Daddy!”
“Oh. Hello Cary,”
I greet him, smiling. Relieved, I can’t think of a better thing to have happen on my lunch break than hearing from my boy, except maybe hearing from Deejay himself.
Robbie waves at me while Cary starts talking about his morning. “Catch up if you can,”
he whispers.
I nod.
“Do you want to know what Papa did?”
Cary asks, excitedly.
“What—”
“He payed tag—did you know he could pay tag?”
“Yep,” I laugh.
“He made me brownies because I wuv them and I won the game!”
“You won tag? When did you get so fast?”
I question, affecting shock.
Cary laughs and for a few minutes I let him chatter in my ear, but when my eyes snag on Robbie still in the courtyard, I tell Cary that I need to get off the phone. He gives me an abrupt goodbye and hangs up without the normal salutations.
Gotta teach the boy phone etiquette at some point.
I put my phone away and head over to where Robbie stands with a small group of guys, one of whom is a non-human with an aura that makes me wonder if Robbie is safe. He touches Robbie, petting Robbie’s head. That makes me uncomfortable, and I know Robbie isn’t comfortable with that.
Worried that he’s getting bullied by another group, I call out to him. “Robbie!”
I shout as I lengthen my strides to get to him faster.
The non-human’s aura dims as a violent swirl of fiery red crosses over it and he glares at me. Robbie takes a few steps my direction, his puppy-brown eyes going wide with terror. “M-Matt.”
Shit. He hasn’t much stuttered since he started his anxiety meds. If he’s back to that, these guys have done something to trigger that symptom of his fear response.
The non-human puts a possessive arm across Robbie’s shoulders causing him to tense up, then the rest of the group follows suit flanking them both until I’m facing a five-man wall with the non-human at the head. I vaguely recognize them as seniors, and I wrack my brain now for their names. This is the popular group of senior boys, and I’ve become aware of them simply because of that.
Unsure how to approach this, I frown, stopping just far enough away that I can grab Robbie if I need to, but not close enough to set the violence of the non-human off. “You alright?”
I ask Robbie, looking for any indication that he wants me to interfere.
He swallows hard, clearly not anything close to ok with his anxious green aura. “Y-yeah. These guys are m-my new friends. Uh, guys this is Matt.”
I look over his new ‘friends’, stopping on the ringleader. It takes me a moment, but I finally figure out why I know him. The first week after the Siren attack, I heard this guy’s name and now I remember that he shares the same last name as the Headsman of the Houston Hub. “You’re Gage Swanson. I’ve heard of you.”
“Robbie just told us a bit about you. We’re planning on taking him out shopping after school, wanna come?”
Gage asks, throwing up a smile that does not match his aura at all.
I look at Robbie, who looks on the verge of tears. I know Robbie won’t want to go shopping, so I offer him an out, trying for diplomacy so Gage doesn’t hurt him. “You need stuff? You can tell Deejay when you need stuff, you know?”
His eyes go wide, but before he can reply, one of the other guys—Ryan, I think? —pipes up. “Oh, this shopping is on me. I’m gonna play dress up with this pretty guy here. The gay fashionista in me wants to do a make-over.”
I arch a brow at him skeptical that that’s his true motivation if he’s hanging out with the Headsman’s brother. “Gay fashionista? Ok. I guess I can come if Deejay’s ok with it, but I’ll have to meet you there. Gotta get the littles home first.”
And it will give me the opportunity to get Robbie alone where he can cancel these ridiculous plans without the threat of bodily harm.
“Alright, if he’s ok with our flamboyant Ryan, then I’m ok with him coming along,”
one of the other guys decides, surprising me—are they worried about Robbie because of me? Is that the reason for the wall around him?
“Tch,”
the last guy says. “He didn’t say he was ok with Ryan. For all we know, he’s gonna try to stop Ryan and that’s why he said he’d come.”
I see, they think I’m the threat. I give the last guy a flat look. “I’m bi. I don’t have a problem with Ryan,”
I tell him before looking back at Robbie just to confirm that I’m not wrong about these guys’ motivations. “Gonna ask again, you alright? You seem to have found the most dangerous guy on campus and the gayest,”
I ask, pointing to Gage and Ryan, respectively. “You comfortable with this?”
“Um,”
Robbie prevaricates, swallowing again.
“Matt, you’re making our friend nervous. It isn’t us. It’s you. So, maybe try to stop hulking over him, you know?”
Gage suggests evenly. “Also, dangerous? Seriously? How do you justify that?”
I almost laugh. Gage thinks I’m the problem here? I’m not the one touching Robbie. This guy needs to know I am neither intimidated by him nor ignorant of just how dangerous he is. His aura speaks to a barely tethered violent streak and a serious case of moral ambiguity. He has some things that he cares about, but those things would take a back seat to his selfish desires. There’s not a lot in his aura—he’s mostly violent streaks of red—but now that I’m looking at it, have read a little bit more on aura colors, and have a bit more experience with it, I realize what the beige is: moral ambiguity. This guy may choose to do the right thing or the wrong thing, and he wouldn’t lose sleep over either choice. “You want to talk about this in front of your friends?”
“My friends know I do MMA, but that doesn’t make me a threat outside the ring. I try to solve my problems as peacefully as I can. Anyway, since you’re coming, try not to make Robbie anxious with your—well, everything, I guess.”
Gage waves up and down at me, but finally releases Robbie, who steps out from under all of them and toward me.
Because I am not the problem here.
“It’s really n-not Matt. It’s not his fault. Matt’s a nice guy. It’s me that’s the problem. I’m—well, obviously I’m a little guy. Big guys have spent a lot of my school years picking on me. Matt just—reminds me of someone who took things too far,”
Robbie explains, and that is the first explanation of anything he’s given.
Anger clouds my mood as Gage’s eyes ignite with a fire burning in them. I nearly reach out and pull Robbie away, but I can see the effort Gage exerts to keep that flame on the inside. I’ve read about a few non-humans with fire talents, but Gage looks ready to implode, keeping it all inside.
“That won’t happen again, Rob,”
Gage promises then offers everyone a fake smile. “Gotta take a piss,”
he explains before leaving.
“Come on,”
I urge Robbie, worried that Gage might set the building on fire. I’ll get Robbie dropped off at his class and then go hunt the fire-talent down to see if he needs some help.
Robbie follows along with me until we get upstairs to his class. It’s before the warning bell, so there’s only one person in the room, and fuck me if it isn’t that damn Chaos Eater. “Fuck,”
I cuss, stomping into the classroom. “What the hell are you doing here?”
I demand, furious with him after the problem with the courier. “Who are you working for?”
Tio gives me a toothy black grin. “Substituting and the school. The Diviner is a bit busy today,”
he explains with an off-hand shrug.
Worry for Chanda sweeps over me. “What did you do?”
I ask, watching his chaos arms start creeping towards us. Nope. No way am I letting Robbie sit in the same room with this guy.
“I did nothing. Your problem is Loretta,”
he replies with a grin. “Maybe you should start avoiding the Hub?”
he suggests.
“Loretta hired you?”
I ask, shocked. Deejay told me the person who hired the Siren was a man.
“No,”
he scoffs. “I would never work for that bitch.”
“Robbie, you should skip today,”
I tell him, putting a protective hand over his chest to usher him back out the door. I can’t win against Tio in a fight, and those chaos arms make me nervous and wary.
“Why?”
Robbie asks, confused.
“That’s the Chaos Eater that keeps showing up,”
I rumble tightly.
“Hey, I’m just subbing today. No need to ditch, though it might be fun if we all did,”
Tio grins, suggestively wagging his brows at us.
Robbie turns on his heels. “Leaving.”
I follow him, walking backwards to make sure that Tio doesn’t follow.
“Aww. I took this job just for the opportunity to meet you,”
Tio intones, affecting hurt feelings, but we both know that’s a lie.
Robbie increases his pace, so I turn around and match it. “Fuck that guy,”
I growl, frustrated. “Go sit in the van,”
I tell Robbie. “I’ll be right there.” Still have to check on the fire-talent, as if I don’t have enough shit going on, but Gage is an imminent threat to the school.
Robbie signals his agreement by heading to the parking lot, while I follow the path Gage seems to have taken. I barely catch a glimpse of his head as he hits the exit door on the other side of the building from me, so I hurry to catch up.
As soon as I hit the doors outside, I jog after him as he heads toward a small equipment shed on the edge of the school’s property on the far side of the sports field. “Gage!”
I holler at him, but he doesn’t respond. I repeat myself a couple of times before I get to the shed. On the back side, I see fire in his hands, which startles me even though it shouldn’t. “Shit!”
I cuss, coming to a sudden halt. Without looking, he throws a small fireball at me, just as startled as I am. It hits me in the chest but dies out before I can do more than grab my shirt.
“What the fuck?”
Gage yells, radiating anger and violence in his aura.
I scowl at him. “Shouldn’t that be my question? It’s not like I didn’t call your name half a dozen times.”
“I was concentrating on not turning the school into a smoldering pile of ash!”
he shouts as his aura vibrates dangerously. “I hate bullies. I hate what Robbie implied might have happened to him before. I need to burn to get rid of the anger and you’ve just made it worse!”
His hands ignite again suddenly, clearly out of control.
I calm my emotions, attempting to sooth him. “What do you usually do to control this?”
He stares down at his hands, speaking more calmly, though his aura swirls with chaotic passions. “I have an outlet, but I can’t seem to burn enough recently.”
“What is your outlet? I can’t help if you’re going to be vague. I’ve read a lot about non-humans recently. I know a bit about some of the ways fire-talents keep their fire under control.”
“Are you studying non-humans or something?”
he snorts derisively, but I don’t take it personally; Gage is a mental-emotional mess.
“I am. I’m Obsidite, but a throwback, and didn’t know shit until a few weeks ago. What are you? I can probably help.”
“Dragon. I’m a half-blood dragon shifter,”
he confesses, correcting my assumptions as he turns his fiery eyes back on me.
Ok, I know as much about dragons as what’s in the encyclopedia, and I know their fires burn hotter if they don’t have a lover who can take their flame. I don’t know how that works, but I do know that much. “Do you have a lover, then? Someone you can pass the flame to?”
His jaw tenses briefly before he answers. “Not yet,”
he growls before looking at me in confusion. “How do you know that?”
“I read it in the Encyclopedia of Non-Human Species. The best way to satisfy the flame is through sex. Dragonspawn who don’t release like that tend to go mad,”
I explain sympathetically. He really needs to get a lover.
He shoots me a violent glare as his aura goes dark again. “I have to wait until I’m eighteen. Eleven days. I can bear it for eleven days.”
That’s a relief. “You do have someone. That’s good. Is there a way you can release while you wait?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t have made it this far if I didn’t, but that person isn’t always available to help me,”
he replies sullenly, extinguishing the flame burning in his hands.
“Can I help?”
I offer—I really don’t want him to burn down the school or go nova because he can’t get this under control. “I don’t mean sex. I already have someone like that.”
“Robbie?” he asks.
“No.”
No way. Not even a little interested. “Robbie is delicate. He couldn’t handle me.”
“Agree. If you can’t handle pain, you can’t help me. Fire burns. It hurts. I only know one person who can handle my flame,”
he says, moving on.
I can guess. The Headsman seems like the kind of person who could handle Gage’s fire. “Your brother?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s the Headsman, isn’t he?”
I ask to make sure I’m not making the wrong assumption.
“Yeah,”
he repeats warily.
“I can handle pain. I’ve been in the Cage for the civilian fights the last two weekends.”
“I’m fine until Loki gets here. He’s meeting me after school. And I’m not sure I want to let you feel my fire. It’s an intimate thing and I don’t know that I want to get that close to you.”
“But your brother is fine?”
I ask skeptically.
He scowls at me. “We don’t share blood. There’s nothing indecent between us.”
I suppose I have a pretty close relationship with my brother and if Cary needed to expend his magic on me, I would do it in a heartbeat, so I have zero room to judge. If either of us are in an indecent relationship, it’s me with a man who can probably turn me into a frog if things go south. “I’m fucking the Maledict, so you won’t find any judgment here,”
I chuckled, trying to put us both at ease.
Gage snorts a laugh as he slides down to sit on the ground, back leaning up against the shed. “Robbie found himself in a group of odd ducks, didn’t he?”
Well, he’s not exactly a shining example of normal either. “Robbie’s an odd duck too.”