Chapter 12
twelve
EVEREST
It’s only when I wake to the sunlight in my face that I realize I’ve slept.
I didn’t expect to drop off at all after what happened last night, but apparently my body had other ideas.
I curled up in bed, trying to catch whatever scent on my fingers had upset Rathyn, but my nose isn’t sophisticated enough to identify it.
It smelled slightly earthy, but also clean. Other than that, it was nothing. Still, the feel of it…of his cock, that had been something else.
I’m craving to see it again. To touch it. To play with it.
To see if it feels as good for him as touching my cock feels for me.
Rolling onto my side, I swing my legs off the bed and make my way into the bathroom to relieve myself, brush my teeth, and make sure my hair is somewhat in order.
It doesn’t take me long to make myself look presentable. I only have a few pairs of sweatpants and t-shirts from the apartment, and while they fit better than the shit he got me, it’s not what I want to spend the rest of the day in.
I say a prayer he sends for my shit soon because if I’m going to be forced to live here for at least a year, I want to feel like part of this space is mine.
I venture out and notice the place is starting to feel a bit more familiar. I’m missing the smell of coffee that Zane always had going whenever I woke up, but my heart is pumping with the anticipation of seeing Rathyn again, so maybe I don’t need my morning caffeine.
I stroll into the living room and find him sitting on the edge of the chair in a blinding ray of sunlight. I open my mouth to ask him how he is, but then he stands, and I realize it’s not Rathyn.
In fact, he looks nothing like Rathyn at all.
The monster in my living room has slightly darker skin, and his hair is blue and violet, twisted in a thick Dutch braid down his back with strings of silver woven in between.
He’s wearing completely sheer pants that cascade down past his clawed feet and a matching vest that does nothing to cover up his pierced nipples.
He’s at rigid attention with his hands behind his back, which is something I’m not used to in the presence of the Vyastil.
I swallow heavily. “Uh. Hi.”
He says nothing but inclines his head, so that’s something, I guess.
“Is Rath here?”
He stares.
“Rath. Rathyn,” I clarify.
He clears his throat, licks his lips, but then just shakes his head.
Fan-fucking-tastic. Rathyn is gone and this total stranger is in my—his—apartment?
“Did he send you?”
He nods.
“To babysit me?” When he frowns in confusion, I sigh. “To watch me.”
The confusion in his eyes clears and he nods, holding his shoulders a little straighter.
That’s wonderful. Rathyn has disappeared and in his place is a total stranger sent to watch me. This wasn’t in the goddamn contract and we will be having words when he’s home. “Uh. So…are you—”
“Eeeeht,” he grunts, interrupting me. He taps his lips with the tips of his fingers like a sign for eat.
I blink at him. “I’m sorry? What?”
He points at the kitchen and makes a strange, melodic noise that very much has the tone of a command.
Well. Excuse the fuck out of me.
I don’t take that shit from the one who sucks my dick. I’m not going to take it from some guy whose name I don’t even know.
I turn away from him, but apparently that’s the wrong move because I find myself in his hands being frog-marched toward the kitchen. “Eeeathhhh,” he says again.
For fuck’s sake. The thing is, I’m starving so I don’t even want to argue, but I will be damned if I let these Vyastil think they can order me around. I pull myself out of his grasp and straighten my shirt.
“Fine. Whatever. You don’t need to be a dick about it.”
He stares at me with his wide-blinking eyes, and I can’t tell if he understands me or not. Whatever. I don’t care. He’s not Rathyn. He’s a babysitter or whatever. I can tolerate his presence for a while.
Rummaging through the cabinets, I find the coffee and quickly start brewing a cup before pulling fruit out of the fridge. Most of Rathyn’s mossy shit is gone, and I wonder if he’s going to go grocery shopping on Erethar?
Do they even have stores there?
I’m starting to think most of the stuff we know about the Vyastil and where they come from is bullshit. It’s all some kind of government propaganda to make us compliant.
I still don’t think a little dick sucking and even the cum factories are too much of a strain. I mean, it’s technically a renewable resource, so who cares?
But there has to be more to all of this than any of us has been told. I’m not the smartest, most observant person in the world, but even I can see where the cracks are forming. I don’t think Zane and his family are right to hate them on principle, but maybe I’ve been a little too trusting.
I glance over at the new guy and attempt to get a read on him, but I’m not great at being able to understand their expressions yet. I take a breath and decide, at the very least, I can be a gracious host.
“Do you want some food?” I ask. Maybe if I can get this guy to relax, I can weasel a little more information out of him.
He says nothing.
“You know, it’s impolite not to answer someone when they ask you a question.”
He blinks owlishly at me, then glances away. He seems…embarrassed. Shit, did I do something? Have I said something wrong?
I’m not trying to be an asshole, really. This is all just new and confusing. I went from a minimum-wage dude slinging hot dogs at the mall to a walking cum dispenser for a Vyastil commander in the span of a week.
I lost my apartment, my space, my peace, and parts of my independence all in one fell swoop.
I had consented to all of it, yes, but I hadn’t expected my life to be flipped upside down the way it was.
“Sorry,” I say after a moment of silence.
I open a drawer and find a ton of sugar packets. The kind that you find at cheap diners. It’s not what I prefer, but it’ll do. He doesn’t have any kind of creamer, and that’s gonna have to change.
“This is all new for me. I’m Everest, by the way. If you didn’t know.”
The monster stares, then says. “Ev…er…” He’s struggling, like he can’t quite make his long, thin tongue form around human words.
“Ev is fine,” I tell him, waving my hand. When the coffee’s done brewing, I snag the cup and start dumping packets of sugar into it. “Most of my friends call me that. Who are you?”
He takes a beat, then says, “Cielo.” There’s a hum to his words when he says it, right in the back of his throat, that I know I can’t make. I’ve heard Rathyn speak like that too, when he’s using his own language.
“Cielo?” I try.
His lips twitch like he’s trying to hide a smile, but he nods. I know it’s not exactly right, but if it’s good enough for him, I’ll take it.
“English is hard, right?”
He frowns.
“Haaaaarrrr.” His eyes widen, and he nods.
He taps his lip once with his long finger, sticks out his long tongue for a second, and shakes his head. “Noooo…ehhhseeee.” His long tongue trips over the first word a bit when he tries to make a T sound. It comes out a lot like, “Nothhhh,” with a slow hiss.
The word easily gets stuck in the back of his throat and is mostly a hum. I can understand him, though. And I can work with it.
“But you understand?”
He nods again.
That’s a relief. “That’s fine. I can do the talking for both of us. That’s kind of my thing. I got so much fucking detention in middle school because I didn’t know when to shut my mouth.”
He looks slightly terrified as I take my fruit and coffee to the table and sit.
“It’s a human thing. School. You have school, right?” I gesture to the empty chair across from me, and he looks unsure for a beat before crossing the room to sit. “Like, where you learn stuff?”
“Lihhhhrnnn,” he repeats, his tongue getting stuck a bit on the L.
I’m not going to even try to make him say school.
“We start school when we’re about five. Shapes, colors, letters, that kind of thing.
I mastered reading pretty quick. My parents and teacher thought I was really smart in kindergarten.
Their opinion changed by first grade, but it didn’t really matter to me. I was having fun.”
He hums in the back of his throat for me to go on. I can’t tell if he’s bored or not. Like Rathyn, this Cielo is a master of the poker face.
“Do any humans speak your language?”
He rumbles a laugh and shakes his head. “Nooooo,” he pauses, then sticks out his tongue further than I’ve ever seen Rathyn extend his. It almost reaches his chest before he snatches it back into his mouth. “Nooooo.”
He’s probably not wrong. The sounds they make in the backs of their throats and in their chests—I don’t even think we have instruments that can do that.
“Humans have non-verbal languages too, you know,” I tell him as I shove a strawberry into my mouth and chase it with a swallow of coffee. The combination of flavors is not good. “Signed languages. You seen those?”
He blinks at me.
I lift my hands. I took two years of ASL in my high school when it was offered, and then never used it again. But I remember a little. “Name-me-EVEREST,” I tell him.
He looks startled and lifts his hands, repeating what I’ve said without a single mistake.
Goddamn, that’s creepy the way they can just absorb things. Maybe they didn’t need school. Or school lasts ten minutes for them.
“Mostly it’s for people who can’t hear or can’t speak.”
“Herrrrr?” he repeats.
I tap my ear. “Yeah. Like Deaf.” Tilting my head to the side, I regard him. They seem to have a cure for just about everything, so do they even have disabled monsters? “No sounds. You have that?”
His lip twitches, and he nods.
Okay. Well, that’s something.
“And I know you all have militaries and…what? Presidents? Kings? Who rules your people?”
He says a word I won’t even try to attempt to pronounce. God, I’m not getting anywhere with this, am I?
This was not how I pictured my morning going. I expected to wake up, flirt with Rathyn, maybe get my dick sucked a couple of times, then ask him about last night.
Instead, there’s this monster babysitter who can’t speak my language more than a few words. I mean, I can work with that, but it’s annoying as fuck.
“Well, anyway, I think I’m gonna go to the store.”
He stares. “Sthhhore?”
“Yeah. Where you go in and spend money and take things home? I don’t have my car, but I think there’s a store down the street, so I can walk. This place needs food with more sustenance than strawberries and coffee.”
“Gooooo…outhhhh?”
It takes me a minute to realize he’s saying out. “Yep.”
“No.”
Well. That word was perfectly clear, just like the command behind it was. I scoff and stand up. “I’m going whether you like it or not. You can tag along or stay here and jerk off—or whatever you Vyastil do to entertain yourselves when you’re alone.”
He doesn’t stop me when I stand up and head toward the bedroom to fetch my hoodie, but I wonder if he’s going to put up a fight when I try to leave.
I suppose that’ll be the real test then, to see if this contract has made me a prisoner or not.