40. HIVE
forty
W e drifted in darkness, but the darkness wasn’t complete. Through the abundance of black, we saw something bright. It came closer and closer, and we knew what it was.
Who it was.
“Hive? Hey. Are you feeling a little better?”
Leo spoke softly, and we had to blink several times to get him into focus. We were in bed, and he was there, wearing the sleep things he favored.
“Leo.”
He ran his finger over our forehead.
“Yes. You look a lot better today. You’ve been asleep for almost a day. Are you feeling any better?”
“We…we behaved poorly. Yesterday?”
He nodded. “Yes. You didn’t behave poorly though. I’m just glad you’re looking at me again.”
“We…were ashamed.”
“I know. I understand. Last night I was wondering what you needed to hear, but I have no fucking idea to be honest with you. You have to know that I don’t think anything , any of what happened to you, makes you shameful. I love you, and I’m not going to leave you. I just really wish I knew how to help you.”
“Leo…” We nodded, shook our heads. Everything was confusing and hazy, though not as bad as yesterday.
“You okay?” Leo asked as a result, frowning at our unmatching reactions.
“We are. We…we don’t really know what to say or feel. We’re glad you’re here, don’t doubt that, but everything else is a lot.” We wiped at some of our faces. “The hive was here?”
“Yeah, they’re downstairs. I told them they didn’t have to stay with that many hivelings, but they were insistent, and I’m low-key glad. Uhm. Something else.”
“What? Did we say anything?”
“Oh no. Nothing like that. I told Headprinci-master Farrow you were sick, and he didn’t believe me or whatever. Your bosses didn’t either, and they showed up here with that other big vampire. Uhm. They… I don’t know how to say this.”
“Did they see us?” We sighed. “Are they letting us go?”
“Huh? No, of course not. Don’t freak out, okay, but they knew there was a call at the studio, and that you were upset. That upset them and, uhm, I think they’re looking for that man now.”
We jerked upright with two. “L-l-l-looking for him? Why? We didn’t—we won’t—”
“They are going to put an end to him.” The hive pushed the door open with one. They had a thermos and a few mugs in hand, a stethoscope around their neck. “We think that’s a reasonable response if we are being honest.”
“Oh.”
We considered that while they poured us tea and then checked us over. Leo was more interested in seeing us drink than finishing his own cup, so we did. We remembered the worry in his eyes. It would haunt us. We realized we were clutching Bruno to us with one and looked at the teddy bear.
Leo saw, and like sunrise brightening the world, he smiled.
“You were holding him all night.”
“Well, we…”
We didn’t know what to say, and when Leo reached for one to caress and kiss, language fled us anyway. It was the one who’d hurt, the one who still hurt.
We wiped the back of our hand. We’d spilled a drop of tea.
“Perhaps…we were thinking that perhaps if we kept ourself apart, kept the two that were in that room, the two that were used, away, we’d be better. We have the house in the underground. We could…”
The hive was frozen, his stethoscope touching our chest, his jaw hanging slack.
Leo tightened his hold on that one briefly before kissing him again.
“Nope. I’ve gotten used to there being five of you. And I warned you about spoiling me. Now I am spoiled and nothing less than the attention of five of you will do.”
“Leo, we…we’ve tried, but we are scared this might happen again.”
“Exactly. If it does, I want to be there to make sure you’re okay.”
We opened our mouth, but once more, we had no words.
“Trust your gleaming one, hive,” the other said, putting his stethoscope back around his neck. “He watched over you. He wouldn’t let your friends near you, that’s how protective he was. He threatened them should they mistreat you.”
“That’s true?” we asked Leo.
He shrugged. “I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. Anyway, the hive is the one who came over here with several of himself and really made a difference.”
“Hardly. And we left with two earlier, but we made breakfast. Both of you should eat something.”
Leo reached for us, waiting until all of us were on our feet before heading downstairs, just like a lion mother not wanting to leave any of her cubs behind. The gesture filled us with warmth, made us less afraid about him changing his mind. He had said he loved us, all of us, but he could change his mind. He might act differently from now on, pulling away because in his subconscious, we disgusted him.
That wasn’t anything we could control. We looked at our hands—and noticed that we had carried Bruno downstairs with us.
“Oh. We should bring him back to the bed.”
The hive chuckled. “We too have collected an old toy our gleaming one loved, and it upsets him that we cherish it. He feels teased by us.”
“Wait, you’re mated too? You have a glowworm person?” Leo was holding out the chairs for three of us before we could stop him, and he stroked our shoulders when we sat as if to make sure we’d not keel over then and there.
“A glowworm person? Hmm.” The hive was deep in thought, looking at the distance with the coffee pot in hand and standing in front of the toaster without pushing the button. He was here with four, and if he’d left with two already, he’d come with six. He was big at eight, but still, to leave his own gleaming one with only two and do this for us…we felt our cheeks redden as we considered it.
“Well, you don’t just glow at night for us, Leo, but in the darkness is when you are brightest.” We pulled our chairs closer toward him.
“I like glowworm person, and my glowworm person agreed.”
“Wow, right, you just talked to them?” Leo asked.
The hive nodded and resumed making breakfast and serving us, yet another kindness. “Yes. He’s really enjoying the word.”
Leo’s cashew milk was in the fridge, something the hive couldn’t have known. We stood and got it for him, poured it into his mug. Yesterday was over. What that human had said, that he would come to get us, it was still as scary as it had been, but perhaps our bosses would find a way to stop him. If not…if not, maybe we could think of a ruse of leading him away from Leo. Whatever happened, we knew we couldn’t allow him to get Leo.
“Hey, we should all get together, us two glowworm persons and you two hives. A double date with lots of bodies.”
“Hmm.” The hive slowed as they considered it again, and we thought they might be talking to their gleaming one about it.
It was Leo’s idea, so we’d not oppose it, but another hive who was bigger and not as weak as we might make Leo want that. Jealousy spiked. We’d never felt it, not in the way we heard it in the tales of humans who had fallen slaves to it.
“We’d have to do it in the underground,” we said.
“Yes! Or at St. Auguste. I get staff credit for the cafeteria, and the food there is actually really good. Plus, big tables.”
“St. Auguste. That sounds like an especially good idea. Hive, your Leo is a cunning lion.”
“Me? Cunning?”
“You don’t know in what way you have been, but you are. We are grateful to have met you.” The hive said it both to us and Leo, and we nodded though we cast our gaze down.
“Cryptic,” Leo said.
We sighed. “We should go to work soon. To the studio. We didn’t get anything done yesterday, and we left the computer on. Xander might be upset about that, given that he is so environmentally conscious.”
“No work today.” Leo fixed one of us in his gaze. “It’s Saturday, plus they said…well, they called it a hunt?”
“That’s the term they used,” the hive confirmed.
“Anyway. They said to tell you to stay home today, a few more days if that’s what you need. I don’t have to go to school either for the time being, not even Instructor Arick’s class, though I should probably text Tate.”
“Hunt.”
“Do you feel…I don’t know. Is there any particular way you feel about that?” Leo asked softly.
“We feel very good about it,” the hive mumbled. They had picked flowers and put them on the counter, using one of the vases we had found at the very back in one of the bottom kitchen counters. We liked the hive, knew we were lucky to have met them.
“We don’t know.” We tried ordering our thoughts, but that wasn’t easy. It was as if there were walls in our mind that we couldn’t find a way around.
“It’s not like you have to feel any particular way about it. There’s nothing wrong with that,” Leo said.
We picked at a slice of toast the hive had put on our plate. “How do you feel about it?”
Leo drank his milk coffee, three sips, then he put the cup down. “You know how comic books teach you that the good vigilantes shouldn’t kill? That they should let the justice system take its course? That’s not really how it works in real life.”
“Technically, this is lawful,” the hive said.
“Huh?” Leo’s brows rose.
The hive poured himself two cups of coffee, drinking it black while he said, “Hawthorne has a number of capital offenses that are punishable by death, and this certainly qualifies. Normally, one petitions them, and they send someone to get it done.”
“I guess we haven’t covered that yet. I’ll have to write a letter of complaint to Instructor Arick.”
We waited, our toast having cooled, for Leo to ask why we had never made such a petition. We knew we could have. Many courts had the option. But when we had been free again, had found a place where we could live in peace in the underground, we’d just never seen how it would be worth it to get this verdict when it meant telling others what had happened.
The hive was watching us, leaning against the counter and doing the dishes while wiping down a cutting board they had used.
“Mr. Conrad is very law-abiding, and the principal holds a position of respect with the Lords Hawthorne.” They frowned. “However, we had no idea they had a mound. If we’d known that—”
The doorbell rang. Leo looked up from his coffee. “Are they back already? That was quick. I’ll go look.”
We took Leo’s hand and stood with one. “Let us. We should…we should thank them, perhaps. And you have done enough.”
He grumbled about not having done anything as we went to the door, thinking that our past might soon really be our past. We’d have to face the fact that knowledge of what we had endured had spread to others, to Coral and Xander, then Leo’s vampire boss. That was a different kind of terror.
We opened the door, wondering how best to thank them for coming to offer their help even when it hadn’t been asked for.
Leo had once told us that he always checked the peephole and never let in anyone he didn’t know. He’d said it was because he was such a loner, and we’d complimented him on knowing to keep himself safe.
Cruel irony—no, foolishness—meant we’d not taken on that habit.
It was that human on the other side of the door. We could see the surprise on his face when he saw us, and within the fraction of a heartbeat, surprise turned into foul desire.
“Boy,” he said, using the name he had called us.
Back in the kitchen, we started retching.