Episode 4 #4
Sevastyan turned his gaze on Lisa, who was half crouched on the floor behind Rei, just beyond reach, but not so far away that he couldn’t have leapt to Rei’s defense.
His face was a mixture of defiance and fear.
And yet he’d made his move anyway, days before Sevastyan expected it.
Been desperate enough to set a trap to get what he wanted.
Unless he had actually collapsed. It was possible.
He’d seen slaves falter and fall, only to pull what shreds of strength they had together and appear fine a moment later.
They weren’t, but if they had to, they could look functional even as their lives seeped out of them. He’d been there himself, at points.
“Come here.” Sevastyan pointed to the floor between his feet.
Lisa’s eyes widened. His limbs tensed. Sevastyan waited him out.
Slowly, Lisa slunk forward, not standing but prowling on all fours, as suspicious and wary as his Russian namesake, the wild fox.
He came to rest in front of Sevastyan, not in a proper form, but still crouched, one knee on the ground, his heel ups, balanced on the balls of his feet.
Sevastyan slid his palm along the sharpness of Lisa’s jaw, his fingers gliding through the shoulder length locks of Lisa’s hair.
There were streaks of blue and silver mixed into the deep brown and overtaking the tips.
It must have been something he’d done recently.
Alexi never allowed such plumage on his property.
The color was masterfully layered. Sevastyan ran his fingertips carefully over Lisa’s skull and down his neck.
Lisa was still, eyes fixed on Sevastyan.
Except for all too close to the surface bones, there was no damage he could find.
Sevastyan moved his touch to Lisa’s hands, lifting them one by one, turning them over, examining the nails.
They were ridged and damaged from malnutrition.
He moved up over Lisa’s wrists where the pale blue veins stood out even from beneath the kiss of the sun.
He wasn’t always this color. It was new.
When Sevastyan had first seen Lisa, he’d been ghost-pale from not seeing the sky for years.
Lisa bore Sevastyan’s touch with gritted teeth, even when Sevastyan pulled up his shirt and ran his hand over his abdomen.
“You tampered with your photos.” Sevastyan lowered Lisa’s shirt and resettled it over the man’s shoulders. “You know you’re too thin. Your gums are bleeding. You have split blood vessels in your eyes, and your nails are lacking essential minerals. Can you eat?”
“Yes. Haven’t wanted to,” Lisa muttered.
Sevastyan caught him with his eyes. Lisa stared back and squirmed, falling on his ass.
Sevastyan lowered himself to one knee between Lisa’s open thighs and took his time, running his hands over the length of Lisa’s lower limbs.
Around his knees, there was tenderness that made him wince.
Without needing to be ordered, Lisa opened his pants and pushed them down, showing a spectacular bruise on the side of his knee.
There was missing skin and deep scab. It looked clean.
“How?” Sevastyan murmured, checking the area for any other damage.
“Slipped on ice,” Lisa whispered, almost sulking.
“Tomorrow you’ll take a course of nutrients: vitamins and minerals, electrolytes. And food. Limited amounts. Your stomach will have shrunk to get you to this state. If you can’t handle what we give here, we’ll admit you to a hospital.”
Lisa cowered.
Sevastyan closed his eyes and moved back, slowly sitting on the couch.
“I’m staying?” Lisa whispered.
Sevastyan opened his eyes. In another world, he would call Ellisandre and ask them to take this tangle from him. Ellisandre would know what to do. They would have the calmness and the resources.
But they were still divided, living on either side of a conflict that had no mercy.
Sevastyan’s fingers went to his shirt. “That remains to be seen. I’m here for work. Rei is serving. If you are a distraction, I’ll send you back to Alexi.”
“I can be quiet.”
“You’ll be more than quiet.” Sevastyan opened his shirt, revealing the bandages and bruises.
Rei’s breath caught. Lisa’s eyes widened.
Sevastyan shrugged out of the shirt and set it aside. Rei almost moved, then remembered his training and stayed where he was.
“What you see in this apartment stays here,” Sevastyan said. “I don’t want to see even a text to Alexi. This is a private operation.”
“I don’t talk.” Lisa’s cheeks puffed up in a mulish expression.
“That’s the only reason you’ve been tolerated. I know you care for Rei. If you talk, I could die. If I die, Rei will disappear into Alexi’s estate at best. At worst, he’ll be sold and you’ll never see him again.”
Lisa glowered. “I won’t talk, not even to Alexi.”
Sevastyan nodded. He took his gun out of his coat and put it on the table beside Lisa’s shoulder. “I’m going to sleep. There are drugs in my system. I may not wake quickly or easily. If your little stunt has brought attention to us, I expect you to take care of it.”
Lisa stared at the gun and then at Sevastyan, and then at the gun again. “I could shoot you.”
“This is the United States. You could have brought a gun with you and shot me. You’re resourceful enough.
” Sevastyan stood. “Besides, like I said before, if you shoot me, you lose Rei. At best he goes to Alexi, and Alexi lets them slice you up alive. At worst, they make an example out of him and make you watch before they send you back to the dogs with nothing but his flesh to eat.”
Lisa’s stomach heaved in revulsion. “I don’t want to kill you.”
“That I don’t believe.” Sevastyan picked up his shirt. “You want to kill me. But I do believe you won’t. Rei, at ease. Go brush your teeth. Find toiletries for Lisa.”
Lisa slowly came to his feet but backed away from Sevastyan. Rei moved towards the bedroom.
Sevastyan motioned Lisa to follow Rei. He went, hesitatingly, looking back multiple times over his shoulder.
Sevastyan rubbed his temples once more. Rei was going to be worried. He had to find a way to comfort his boy with Lisa present. And he had to sleep. The rest he’d had at the Bolthole had been enough to let him walk home but not enough to bring him back to any sense of stability.
He limped into the bedroom, put his things away, and checked his systems and alerts.
Nothing required his attention immediately.
He found the video of Rei going out. His face hadn’t shown at all, and he hadn’t been the only one in the elevator.
Richard Reevesworth and his boy, Collin, with their bodyguards, had been there.
Sevastyan shook his head. Lisa’s stunt was likely not going to cause harm.
It was better, actually, that he’d made his move now rather than in a few days when Dirk might make a visit.
Actually, he could use Lisa as leverage.
Dirk would know who Lisa belonged to. To the outside world, it looked like Alexi was trusting Sevastyan with his personal slave in addition to Sevastyan’s own, a mark of favor Dirk would be stupid to cross.
But there was still the problem of having Lisa for a long period of time inside their inner sanctum.
Those were thoughts to entertain after more rest and caffeine.
Sevastyan moved towards the bathroom and leaned against the doorway, watching Rei and Lisa together.
Rei was offering Lisa floss and Lisa was shaking his head.
He pointed to his toothbrush. It was tinted pink from blood.
Rei grimaced and stood on his tiptoes, looking at Lisa’s teeth.
“You can eat, right?” Rei whispered.
“Yeah.” Lisa shrugged. “But why should I? Felt like I was just eating for them. Don’t want to be pretty for people.”
“Eat for me?” Rei whispered.
Lisa’s shoulders slumped. “Sometimes, I don’t know if there’s a point, ReiRei. Like why do I even keep doing this? I was . . . never mind.” Lisa swung away, grabbing the floss.
Rei grabbed it. “Don’t. You can go one night without. You’ll just bleed more.”
“I think Alexi is going to get rid of me,” Lisa whispered.
“He wouldn’t. You’re his fox.”
“His wild fox. I’m not soft like you, or the others.”
“That’s why he lets you run.”
“It’s not really running,” Lisa muttered. “It’s still a fucking leash. I’m still not . . . I still can’t breathe.”
Rei regarded Lisa with sad eyes.
“Do you . . . how do you . . . how do you not just end it all?” Lisa whispered.
“I almost have,” Rei whispered. “If I’m ever sold, well, I won’t be.”
“So, your master . . ”
“He’s enough.” Rei nodded firmly, but gently.
Lisa frowned, looking down at his hands. “How can you love him?”