Sevastyan
When all three of them were showered as much as advisable and dressed, they collected in the kitchen.
Lisa had been there first. He had food on the small two-person table against the wall.
Sevastyan insisted Rei and Lisa sit because of their legs and leaned against the counter himself.
The food from the condo had all been stuffed in Ellisandre’s fridge, including the roast Lisa had baked the day before.
Lisa made roast beef sandwiches at the table and Sevastyan poured coffee for everyone.
Rei’s hands were almost useless. The bruising was worse now and the swelling had spread.
He ate with one hand on a bag of ice, switching sides often.
Sevastyan watched and said nothing. Noting the thing would only make it worse.
“So, what’s the deal with the Jon Wick drag queen?” Lisa said.
Sevastyan raised one eyebrow. “I’m surprised you know the reference.”
Lisa shrugged. “I might have watched it naked in a muzzle, but it’s still fucking good cinema. Don’t change the subject.”
Sevastyan dropped his eyes, glanced at Rei, and looked away.
He knew the two slaves were watching him and yet it was still hard to start.
This was a conversation that had been a long time coming.
He’d always thought it would be just him and Rei.
Or him, Rei, and Ellisandre. Or a letter he left behind for Rei to read.
“Ellisandre shot me in Germany eleven years ago.”
He tapped the scar on his shoulder.” Rei’s eyes widened.
Sevastyan nodded. “They took out the whole team around me. It was a kidnapping. Two kids. Their father was an official some people wanted to put pressure on. I had the kids. Ellisandre killed everyone else and shot me. We were stuck on a train together. They let me live.
We met up a few months later. Became . . . lovers.”
Rei’s chest rose and fell. His eyes were fixed on the table. Sevastyan forced himself to hold still.
Lisa snorted. “Bullshit. What’s the rest of it?”
Sevastyan dropped his eyes to the floor. How did one explain the confusion and wonder? “They were beautiful. Efficient. Lethal.
“They shot you. Why didn’t they kill you?”
“I don’t know.”
Sevastyan’s phone buzzed. He fished it out of his pocket. It was the one from Ellisandre. He checked the screen.
Sevastyan smiled. He passed Lisa the phone.
“They’re fucking listening?!” Lisa’s back stiffened and he looked around the kitchen. “Fucking creep. You hear me, you’re a fucking creep.”
The phone buzzed again. Sevastyan stepped closer to read Ellisandre’s next text.
“How about basic common decency,” Lisa snapped at the ceiling. He raised his middle finger.
Sevastyan covered his mouth with his hand to hide a smile when Lisa glared at the phone screen.
Rei looked between the phone and Sevastyan. “Master?”
“Ellisandre worked for Europol,” Sevastyan said. “I was working with my father to take the Merchari down from the inside. We lost contact when Ellisandre died ten years ago.”
“So, you’re saying a ghost killed all those gorillas yesterday?” Lisa snorted.
Sevastyan shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips.
“The death was staged. I didn’t know it, though.”
The smile slid off his face. He rubbed his chest.
The sound of Ellisandre’s phone call, the way they had breathed, the sound of their last order, that he not die, gripping him again.
He shook his head, trying to push the sick, longing feeling away.
“I approached Ellisandre in January for help.”
“And they only agreed to help you yesterday?” Lisa snorted. “You had to almost freakin’ die first?”
Sevastyan had nothing to say. His cheeks burned.
The phone buzzed again.
Lisa looked between the phone and Sevastyan. “Yesterday! We needed help years ago.”
Sevastyan swallowed and looked away. Shame suffused his body, rooting him in place. Out of everyone, Lisa had the right to accuse him. Judge him, even.
Rei laid his hand over Lisa’s. “It wouldn’t have mattered.”
“Why?” Lisa’s voice spiraled. “Your master is a fucking powerhouse in the Merchari. If he wanted to take them down . . .”
“He’d take down a few and the rest would remain.” Rei’s voice took on an edge and he sat up taller. “And he wasn’t that strong until a couple years ago. After he got me and met Alexi.”
Lisa’s mouth opened and closed. Sevastyan’s heart thudded in his chest.
Rei took Lisa’s hand in both of his. “You know how Alexi works. What kind of parties he has. Alexi only invited Sevastyan because of me.”
Lisa opened and closed his mouth again. “That’s why you’re with him. You agreed.”
“Yes,” Rei said.
“No,” Sevastyan said.
Rei’s eyes flew up to Sevastyan’s face.
“You were already a slave. You didn’t agree. I took you.”
“You saved me.” Rei’s face turned mulish, his jaw coming together.
“You didn’t have a choice.”
“I did,” Rei’s voice softened. “You gave me a choice.”
“A fucked-up choice, then.” Sevastyan turned away.
Rei reached out. Sevastyan flinched. Rei pushed up out of his chair and grabbed Sevastyan’s sleeve. “Master.”
Sevastyan squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn’t turn around.
This in-between space was too hard. It was easier when he and Rei were in their roles, when they didn’t talk about the past, when he knew what he had to do,
when he knew he was damned and he was comfortable damning himself even further with no one but Rei to witness the level of depravity he’d reached.
Rei pressed himself against Sevastyan’s back, his hands gripping Sevastyan’s shirt. “Master.” His weight fell against Sevastyan. He only had one good foot.
“So, where’s your father?” Lisa said from behind them. “Is he dead? Did you have to start over without him?”
“He gave up,” Sevastyan said. “He’s a liability. Could betray us at any time. Probably won’t because he most likely assumes I have copies of the records of what espionage he did before he chickened out.”
“So who else is with us?”
“Just us,” Rei said. “We’ve tried a few times. Sevastyan eliminated some minor players before he had me. The Merchari has always had resources to stop the investigations or gotten their important members off. Destroyed evidence. Killed the witnesses who were willing to testify.”
Sevastyan squeezed Rei’s arm to signal that he wasn’t going to run. He sat down, taking Rei’s chair, and picked him up, holding him sideways in his lap. He needed the reassurance and comfort.
“Just us.” Lisa blinked. His eyes unfocused. “You mean me, the—I can’t remember their name—the drag queen person, you, and Rei.”
“Ellisandre,” Sevastyan supplied the name.
“And Jun,” Rei added to the list. “We hope. That’s why Sevastyan reached out to Ellisandre now. We have a plan that might work.”
“That’s what you meant, yesterday.” Understanding dawned in Lisa’s eyes. “A life for a life. Gang Junseo, the guy you keep watching.”
Rei nodded. “We have the evidence. Documentation. Video tapes. Photos. Jun’s important to Damian, who’s important to Richard Reevesworth. They can talk to people we can’t. Ellisandre has taken down criminal rings before. This is the first time we might be able to take them all down. All at once.”
Lisa nodded, eyes hardening. He looked straight at Sevastyan. “I meant it. Even if you didn’t have something on this level, I would help.”
“Even if it meant killing Alexi?” Sevastyan spoke through a tight throat.
Lisa’s face paled but he didn’t look away. “What if you had to kill him?”
“He’s a monster,” Sevastyan said. “One I owe a lot to. But he’s bought and sold humans. He knows what the Merchari does.”
“I don’t want to pull that trigger,” Lisa whispered. “I owe him. I hate him and . . .”
“And he feels safe,” Rei whispered. “He lets you sleep and . . . he’s kind.”
Lisa nodded.
Sevastyan looked away, giving Lisa privacy. “If it comes to it, I’ll try to make sure it’s me and not you.”
“It’s wrong,” Lisa said. “In a world of monsters . . . he feels like my monster. But if they’re all monsters, so is he.”
“He’s someone else’s demon, even if he isn’t ours,” Rei whispered.
“You both may have to interact with him again,” Sevastyan said.
“Put the thought out of your heads. You have to feel positively towards him. He’ll read it in you if your thinking has changed. And for now, he is a source of safety. I may even leave you both in his care, if it comes to it. No matter what else he may do,
he values both of you enough to kill on your behalf.”
His own chest ached at the thought of severing the tie.
Alexi had a set of standards he operated by.
And he stuck with them. In a world of chaos and blind self-enrichment, Alexi valued order and beauty.
And yet he had once been a director in the Yadro.
And he traded in human lives. Never children. But lives all the same.