Chapter Twenty-One #4
Suddenly the officer staggers forward and hits the ground on his knees before sinking onto the road.
“What the fuck just happened?” I ask in alarm.
“I meant to distract him!” Ezio whispers from somewhere in the trees.
“Oh my god, did you kill him?” I ask as I try to rush over to the man, but I can’t grab him with my hands cuffed behind my back.
“He’s still breathing. I can hear it from here,” Casimir says. “Ezio, Julian said the car has a camera in it. Get rid of it.”
“Yes, sir!” Ezio says as he walks over to the car and proceeds to pick it up and fucking yeets it out into a field. Then he dusts his hands off like any part of that was a job well done.
I look at him in disbelief. “How the hell was that getting rid of the evidence? And the cameras aren’t something you can just crush and poof, all information is lost, or the bad guys would just bust in and break the cameras! It’s probably immediately recorded!”
I can’t get the stupid handcuffs off, so I shift to make them fall right off since the body cam the officer is likely wearing is pressed against the road and the car’s camera is pointed out in the field.
“Ah well,” Casimir says. “When they come tomorrow, I’ll pay them off.”
“ That clearly doesn’t always work! And don’t get in the car! We can’t just leave him out in the road!”
“He’s fine, he’s having fun,” Casimir says, fully planning on leaving the officer in the middle of the road.
“ He is not having fun ! ” I exclaim as I grab the officer’s pants with my teeth and start dragging him out of the road just as the man comes to. His eyes lock on to the wolf dragging him, which results in him screaming before he kicks me in the face and leaps up.
“Chase him! That way it’s technically him leaving the scene of the crime. It’ll work better when I pay them off tomorrow,” Casimir says.
“ I’m not chasing him! ”
“Where the fuck is my car! Where’s my car?” the officer asks wildly.
“ Just tell him I’m a dog! ”
“This is my dog. His name is… uh… Definitely Not a Wolf, but I call him A for short,” Casimir says. “He’s a good boy.”
“Call him off! Call him off!”
“Play dead. A, play dead.”
Fucking hell, is this a mess.
And that’s the moment another car pulls up. All of us look over at it as Cyrus jumps out and comes running up to us.
“What is this? ” he hisses. “Officer Higgens, all’s good here. I got it.”
“I was knocked unconscious and then my car is gone and there’s a fucking… wolf . And swords, and blood.”
“It’s just a fever dream,” Ezio says in some spooky voice.
The officer jumps and looks over at him. “Where did you come from?”
“I’m just a ghost. Woooo…” he says while trying to blend back into the shadows.
Cyrus looks over at us like he just can’t understand why he is dealing with this.
I really can’t blame him and have absolutely no idea how everything spiraled so out of control.
“I knew the moment I heard Casimir’s name called in that this was going to be a mess.
Officer, let me help you get your car out.
These three are fine. They’re actually consultants…
if you can believe that. They just… don’t understand normal social cues and are easily confused. ”
“Where’d the naked one go? And where’d the… dog come from?”
I give him a bark just to reconfirm that I am, indeed, a dog.
And while Cyrus is helping with that, Casimir plucks me off the ground, stuffs me in the car and drives off.
I shift and slowly look over at him. “You look fucking pleased .”
“You have to admit… it was kind of fun screwing with the human.”
“Was it?” I hiss.
“After this night… yeah, I kind of enjoyed it. Is your face okay? He gave you a pretty good kick there.”
“It’s… still attached.”
“That’s good,” he says as he swings by my house to pick Gustov up and get me some clothes, which I’m relieved to be able to put on.
“I can’t believe you thought bribing him with a painting of Gustov would work,” I say as he puts the excited dog in the back before heading toward his home.
“I bet if he saw the painting, we’d have won him over.”
“Instead, he saw your bloody swords.”
“It’s fine. When I feel back to normal tomorrow, I’ll just allure them into thinking nothing was wrong,” he says.
“Alright.” I really hope it doesn’t go as poorly as this did.
When we get to Casimir’s house, he reaches into the trunk to grab the swords he’d moved when picking up Gustov. I follow him, relieved to be back to his house, even if it isn’t a guarantee that we’ll be safe.
“I guess I’ll go get a shower,” I say.
“Yeah, okay.”
I head toward the spare bedroom and step into the bathroom that’s connected to it after grabbing a towel.
After pulling my shirt off, I turn to look at my back in the mirror.
I see bruises already spreading across my skin, and I’m sure there are more I can’t see as well.
Tomorrow, I’m going to feel like a truck ran me over.
With Casimir in his own room, I find the house eerily quiet without him.
What if one of the vampires followed us home? What if being delayed by the officer gave them time to catch up to us? Or what if they got here first? What if they’re waiting in the house like Yorick did?
I reach for the shower before hesitating and walking back toward Casimir’s room. I mean… if we both need to take a shower… why waste water, right?
The door to his bedroom is open, so I step inside before pausing.
Casimir’s bare back is to me, and when I see it, I can’t stop my eyes as they run over the raised skin, scars that stretch in crisscrossed lines across his back. There are so many that mar his skin, each layered over another from the top of his back down to his ass.
He turns quickly to look at me. “Julian?”
“Sorry, I should have knocked. The door was open a bit and I shouldn’t have just barged in,” I say. “I just… thought we could shower together… if you want.”
Casimir hesitates and I realize that all the times we’ve done something together or slept together, he’s kept a shirt on.
Was he trying to hide his back from me? And then there I am just waltzing into his room.
The door was open, but it isn’t like we’re actually dating.
I should have knocked or called out or something.
Then again, I’m surprised he didn’t hear me walking up.
Was he so focused on something else that he didn’t hear me coming?
He’s quiet for a moment and I realize I’ve overstepped. We’re not dating. None of this is real.
I feel foolish and I don’t even know what to say to make the situation better. “I’m sorry. I was being paranoid. What if I just… sit in your bedroom while you shower, and you… do the same for me?” I ask, fumbling like crazy.
Casimir is still silent, and I don’t know what the fuck to do. Can’t he just say something to relieve this tension?
“You can shower with me as long as you keep your questions to yourself,” he finally says, voice a bit sharp.
I hesitate. “Really, Casimir, I was just… feeling paranoid. I don’t actually need to shower with you if you don’t want.” But I really want him to.
He sighs and rubs his head before giving me a smile, like there wasn’t anything off between us. “Sorry, I’m just tired.”
“Yeah… me too.” I’m relieved he’s not mad at me, but I still feel bad, and of course I can’t keep my mind from wondering what happened to make his back look like that.
“Why don’t you get a shower first?” he asks, and I realize that he’s making it quite clear we aren’t showering together, which I feel significantly disappointed by.
“No, I insist you go first. You’re the one who looks like you took a blood bath.”
He shrugs. “A blood bath sounds delicious… if it hadn’t been my own blood.”
“Does it?” I ask, rightfully skeptical about this.
“Yes. You can’t tell me you wouldn’t want to take a bath in a tub full of squirrels.”
“Oh my god. That’s just… no. Please tell me they’re alive in this scenario.”
“Roll around in them.”
“Shove off.”
He grabs my wrist and pushes me into the bathroom. “Go on, get a shower. I won’t go anywhere, and I won’t let anyone touch you.”
I hesitate before nodding. “Okay,” I say, finding myself disappointed that I’m getting into it alone. A huge part of me wants to go back to him, to ask if he’s positive he doesn’t want to join me, but that’s just foolish, isn’t it?
Fuck. Where the hell is my mind wandering off to?