Episode 6 #6
“But you don’t own him.”
“But I don’t own him.” Sevastyan nodded. “And I don’t know how to free him.”
Rei looked reflexively towards the hallway.
“No one heard me,” Sevastyan whispered. “The bedroom door squeaks, and it’s closed.
Rei’s shoulders lowered a little. “If you miss our time alone, then you could tell him to stay in the bedroom during the day.”
Sevastyan nodded. Then smiled. He was doing that a lot tonight. “Or we could go out, together.”
Like you went out with this friend?
Rei dropped his eyes. “May I ask to where, master?”
Please don’t say a museum. I already feel like a ghost in everyone else’s lives.
“There’s an indoor farmers’ market a short way from here.” Sevastyan pushed one of the two cups of tea towards Rei. “Crafts, cheese . . .”
Rei wrinkled his nose up at the cheese. Some cheeses were okay, but only some. Sevastyan was usually careful to only bring back ones Rei liked.
Sevastyan chuckled. “Flowers. Jewelry. Leatherwork.”
“Flowers in winter?”
“Hot house flowers.”
Flowers were alive. A little warmth blossomed inside Rei’s chest that had nothing to do with the warm tea. He cupped his hands around the ceramic and breathed in the lavender and chamomile. “Please.”
He needed to keep his head together. He couldn’t be feeling this changeable, this fragile.
Sevastyan needed him to be steady. Whether or not they ever brought down the Merchari.
Whether or not it took their lives. They only had to persist until the moment they were finished.
Until they ran out of life or succeeded.
Sevastyan touched the marks on his neck, sipping at his tea with his other hand. “I can’t talk about this, not yet.”
“It’s not my place,” Rei whispered, eyes down.
“It is,” Sevastyan whispered.
“And it’s not.” Rei lifted his chin. “I trust you.”
Sevastyan dropped his eyes. “Nothing has changed between us, beautiful. Nothing.”
Rei’s chest ached. Something had, though.
There was a piece of joy in Sevastyan’s life that he couldn’t touch.
And it was making Rei’s world colder, not by lack of warmth, but by comparison.
He would always wish all the joy on his master that he could.
He just had to remind himself that Sevastyan’s joy was his, and let the warmth seep into him instead of being afraid it would all be taken from him.
He put his tea down on the counter and stepped closer, just centimeters away from touching his master. Sevastyan opened his arms, welcoming him in. Rei leaned in against him, putting his hand on Sevastyan’s chest.
Sevastyan held him. Feeling this reassurance required no effort to access. Sevastyan’s body against his didn’t lie. He was wanted. Rei tangled his fist in the waist of Sevastyan’s pants and clung.
Rei
Questions remained the next morning, though. And Rei’s work was to spot patterns. It was unavoidable. Whoever Sevastyan had been with was a tiger. Rei stared at the marks on Sevastyan’s back as he dressed.
What would it look like if my marks were there as well?
The shapes and angles of the scratch marks could only come from someone who had dominated Sevastyan. That was twice now, since coming to Chicago, that Sevastyan had surrendered to someone else. And he seemed better for it, this second time.
Late in the afternoon, Rei put his research away as Lisa came out of the bedroom.
He stood up and took Lisa’s hand, tugging him towards the couch.
Lisa raised an eyebrow. Rei ignored it, dragging Lisa across the room and throwing himself down.
He pulled Lisa down, the larger man giving in and climbing on top of him.
Rei urged him to lie down until Lisa’s full weight was pressing him into the cushions.
“We’re doing this?” Lisa asked.
Rei wrapped his arms around Lisa and squeezed.
“Um . . . okay.” Lisa made himself more comfortable and pulled a pillow around to cushion his head, rather than smooshing Rei’s face.
It was almost enough. Lisa needed to eat more. Then he’d be more satisfyingly heavy. Rei ran his hands over Lisa’s still prominent ribs.
“I’m eating,” Lisa groused.
Rei just squeezed Lisa against him again and closed his eyes.
In a world of no guarantees, moments such as this were the only safety.
He was going to exist here, and only here, with his friend pushing him down into the cushions, the air in the room comfortably warm while snow fell outside, and a soft silence wrapping the space around them in protective stillness.
Just this moment. No future. No past. He breathed in the scent of Lisa’s hair and let Lisa’s heartbeat pulse against his own.
Slowly, Lisa relaxed. “I can put a cover over us. I’m kinda cold.”
Rei nodded.
Lisa used his long arm to find the blanket Sevastyan kept on the couch specifically for naked slaves. Neither of them were naked at the moment, but it was still welcomed. Lisa cocooned them and then relaxed fully on top of Rei. “You can breathe, yes?”
“Enough.” Rei wrapped both his arms and legs around Lisa until the other slave grunted.
Sevastyan
Sevastyan stepped out of the upscale bar into the slow flow of human traffic and took the stairs towards the building exit. His phone buzzed. He slipped it out of his pocket and switched his headset on. “Mother.”
“Sevvy,” Raska purred. She sounded drunk. “We were just talking about you.” She prattled on without taking a breath for several minutes, referring to people and their activities and collections, most of which Sevastyan was aware of. “Anyway, get that for me. That choker.”
“That would be a long job, Mother,” Sevastyan said.
Long job was an understatement. The choker in question was on display at the capital museum in Iran.
It wouldn’t be the hardest heist he committed, but it would certainly be in his top ten.
It could take months to years to plan, if he wanted to conduct it without being detected.
Raska made a mewing sound over the phone, the tone that preceded her getting angry.
Sevastyan detoured. “I’m on assignment for the Yadro, Mother. It’d be my head if I leave the job.”
She gave a deep sigh. “Stop working for them and work for me.”
“You work for them,” Sevastyan chuckled. “You sent me to work for them. My tithe pays part of yours. I do work for you.”
She groaned. “Why do you have to be so practical, Sevvy?”
“Because someone has to keep you in dresses and necklaces. And your boy-toys are too poor.”
She laughed. “I sold the last one. So I guess he wasn’t that poor. In the end.”
“Who took him?”
“Oh, we went yachting off Morocco, on the company boats. So much eye candy. I knew I was bored with the guy, so I just asked the owner if he wanted him, and he said yes. It was amusing. They made him serve dinner in nothing but an apron on the last night and I got to watch.”
Sevastyan raised an eyebrow, keeping his emotions on lockdown. “I’m sure the surprise was delicious.”
“Oh, very. He never saw it coming.” Raska laughed gayly. “But now I have to find a new one.”
“If anyone knows how to shop, it’s you.”
“Oh, I do, I do.” Raska giggled. She was most certainly drunk. “You should rent your boy out to the yachts. But he’s ruined. I forgot. They only take pretty ones. You should get a pretty one, Sevvy baby. Only the best for my baby boy.”
Sevastyan chuckled. “You know I don’t keep him for his looks. Besides, I can’t get rid of him.”
“Of course you can.”
Sevastyan shook his head, even though Raska wouldn’t be able to see him. “Alexi would have a snit. He helped me train him. You know how Alexi is about his art.”
Raska huffed. “I never understood that about him. And giving up a directorship, too.”
Sevastyan laughed. “It’s what you trained me to do, Mother, find the illogical pieces of a person. The cake they can’t resist, the right dress. The right view. My boy is Alexi’s cake.”
“You could always get a second one, though.”
“I do have a second one, at least for the moment. We’ll see how long. From Alexi’s own stock.”
“You have that man wound around your finger.” Raska sounded thoughtful, as if she were hatching another of her plans.
“Alexi is a dangerous man, Mother. He indulges me.”
“Dangerous men. Dangerous times.” Sounds of movement and fabric brushing fabric came through the connection. She might have crawled into a bed. “They say heads are rolling over that K-Pop singer. Make sure it’s not yours.”
“Whose head rolled now?”
“Oh, I don’t know, all of them. But you’re next on the list. The dead client’s wife, she’s demanding blood, preferably the singer’s, and yours for letting him off. The head of the South Korean branch has agreed to lodge a formal demand with the Yadro.”
“They can try,” Sevastyan said.
“Oh, sweetie, aren’t you worried?” Raska sounded like she might be getting sleepy.
“Not worried, Mother. You taught me well.”
Raska mewed. She was definitely in the sleepy stage of drunk. “They’re coming for you, though. Make sure you kill them first. They say Bak Sahyuk isn’t giving up, even if he’s behind bars.” She hung up.
Sevastyan put away his phone. There went his evening.
If he could trust anyone, he’d be calling in security for Rei and Lisa.
But protecting them in any visible way meant displaying their value.
That, he didn’t dare do. Not yet. Hiding them away was an option.
He needed somewhere invisible, off grid, and warm.
Chicago winters were too deep to be careless with.
The inland sea the locals called a lake was a lapping vastness of slush, bits of ice supporting fresh fallen snow floating on a water that was warmer than the air above it.