Onyx #2
Shane huffed. “If you think you don’t matter to Dominic, you haven’t been paying attention,” he noted in a dry tone. “That witch came unglued when you were hurt. I’m not sure anyone in the house would’ve survived if you’d died.”
Onyx absorbed that, not sure what to make of it. He knew Dominic was obsessed and unhinged, and those weren’t a very good combination. He didn’t feel guilty over it, though. After all, if he set the house on fire with himself and Dominic inside, they’d all die together anyway.
Shane finally cleared the finish line, and stats appeared on the screen.
The wolf had finished in seventh, far behind Onyx’s first place.
It wasn’t the worst, but given that there had only been a total of thirteen cars…
Onyx might’ve poked fun at Shane if the topic of their conversation hadn’t been so serious.
“Keeping… pets… isn’t all that unusual anymore,” Shane continued. “Pet is sometimes the best option available for marked humans.”
Onyx’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Shane, and he snapped, “I’m not a marked human.”
Whether the world at large accepted that he was still a witch or not, and despite his doubts, Onyx would always insist he was… strange as it was because he’d hated being a witch since he’d ended up with the rebellion.
“No, you’re not a marked human,” Shane acknowledged. “But you’re an enslaved supe, which is about the same thing. And if you don’t think that comes with a worse set of options, it does. There aren’t many of those, and almost all of them are broken. Very broken.”
Onyx shuddered. He could imagine. If people saw owning supes as a point of pride — and he imagined they did — they were too dangerous to have unbroken, which was one of the reasons he kept thinking that Dominic was going to push him too far and shatter what little remained of him.
“What’s it like, being a witch?” Shane asked.
Onyx sank back against the couch as Shane changed the topic.
“I dunno,” he said, considering. “With my magic, it’s like…
everything is fuller, freer. Like I can just say a few words and make so many things happen.
I can call fire and it obeys. I can call light and it’s less dark.
I can even shield a location from detection. I can do so many things, and I…”
He was not going to cry. He wasn’t.
“It really sucks not to have my magic,” he mumbled.
Shane nodded in apparent sympathy, asking, “What’s it feel like when you make fire?”
The question caught him slightly off guard, and he frowned thoughtfully.
“It feels like…” He closed his eyes, imagining he was able to call fire in that moment.
“It’s exhilarating. It’s like slow heat building up in your hand, except you know how dangerous it is.
But you keep doing it anyway, because it’s addictive and it’s fucking beautiful, and it’s deadly, too.
” He sighed. “I don’t know. It’s just exhilarating. ”
“It looked really damn impressive too. There was no mistaking the open admiration in Shane's voice.
Onyx smiled at that, preening a little beneath Shane’s comment. “Yeah. Used to scare the shit out of people.” His smile faltered. “But it was good because I could… do things, you know? I could help out and keep everyone safe.”
Well, everyone he gave a fuck about. Everyone else could — literally — go die in a fire somewhere.
“Did Dominic say when he was going to take you back there?” Shane asked.
Onyx shook his head. “No, and I… I don’t know. I didn’t exactly react well to being re-collared, so I’m not sure if he’ll make me wait,” he said unhappily. He poked at the joystick, starting to set up the next race without much enthusiasm for the game.
Shane glanced at Onyx. “Bad? How bad?”
Onyx scowled. “It wasn’t that bad,” he muttered.
After all, Dominic had ultimately ended up sucking Onyx’s cock, so…
He guessed it couldn’t have been too terrible.
“I just wanted some space, and he didn’t want to give me space, so he pushed and I freaked out a little.
” He shook his head. “I didn’t try to kill him or anything. ”
He would have if he could have.
Wouldn’t he?
“You might not have to wait for long if you ask him to go,” Shane replied, accepting the same car options and waiting for Onyx to start the next race.
Onyx nodded, but he didn’t know what the cost would be — or what he’d be willing to pay to be able to touch his magic again, to feel the heat of fire on his skin and smell the scent of burning wood or anything else.
That was the scary thing, wasn’t it? That he’d do nearly anything to have it again?
He selected his own car and started the game again. “He’s like… I don’t know. The dinner party was worse, honestly.” And Shane had to know that, since he’d been needed to help calm him in the aftermath.
Shane nodded. “He’s what?”
“He’s needy,” Onyx said of Dominic, his voice hushed, making Shane blink at him in apparent confusion.
Would he get in trouble for saying something like that? Possibly. Did he care? That was the real question, wasn’t it?
“Anyway,” Onyx said, wanting to change the subject just in case. “You’re doing better at the game.” He smiled at Shane, though it was a little flimsy around the edges.
“It’s a fun game,” Shane said. “But I am still trying to figure out what the heck is with all of this… stuff. How does any of this even work? I mean, I’ve figured some of it out just by getting hit by it.”
Onyx grinned at Shane when he spoke, and he decided he’d be a little nicer.
“Okay, so…” He began to explain the different strategies he used for picking his vehicle, then detailed the different sort of challenges he could expect while on the course.
Then he queued up another game. “You’d better do better this time. "
“Oh, so that’s how you were doing that. I’m going to have to practice that one… I’m not sure I like the look of this map,” Shane said rather dubiously.
“Can’t have everything easy,” Onyx replied innocently.
He proceeded to trounce Shane on the map he’d selected, but he begrudgingly allowed, “Not too bad. If you hold it down instead of mashing the button, it’d be better.
” He showed him a few more tricks, then chose a straightforward track for their next race. “Try this one.”
Shane snorted in amusement. “You didn’t tell me I could hold it down,” he muttered under his breath with mock affront.
“Oops,” Onyx deadpanned. “I’m not giving away all of my secrets right away. I had so many hours in here before I broke past tenth.” He focused on the game, not wanting to be embarrassed if Shane passed him up.
Not that that was likely.
“Ha! Fourth!” Shane chortled after a game.
Onyx grinned at him. “You’re good,” he said in approval. “I have other games, too.” He hesitated. “If you want to play with me more, anyway. I know you have better things to do.”
“Let me think about this, hmm,” Shane said in a dry tone. “Would I rather wander around and scowl and look intimidating while doing fuck-all and being bored, or would I rather play games? And I get to hang out with you? Yeah, sign me up for playing games, please. What other games do you have?”
Onyx rolled his eyes, but he could help but be pleased that Shane was choosing to hang out with him.
Maybe the alternative was boring, but either way.
He could’ve found this tedious, too. “Oh, lots." He exited out of the racing game to go to the extensive library of games Dominic had bought for him. “Action, RPG, puzzles… I’m not really sure why he bothers buying me puzzle games. I don’t like them.” He shrugged. “I can always get more, too.”
“Uh… I honestly don’t know. I haven’t played games in years, so I have no idea what any of them are. I guess just any of them that can be multiplayer and you can show me what to do.” Shane said.
“We can shoot zombies,” Onyx was offering when the door opened. He tensed immediately, all of the relaxation dissipating from his body as Dominic lingered in the doorway.
“Are you having fun?” Dominic asked mildly.
“Yeah,” Onyx told Dominic, fidgeting with the controller.
“Good,” Dominic answered. He lingered near the doorway, like he was waiting for something.
A little baffled, Onyx asked, “Want to watch us slaughter some zombies?” He wasn’t ready for the day to be over yet.
He wasn’t ready to see the price tag for the next good moment.
“Slaughter zombies? Yes, I think so. What is the premise for slaughtering zombies?” Dominic inquired as he entered the room, crossing over so he could see the television screen.
“Um,” Onyx said, thoroughly perplexed even as he opened up the game.
“Does there need to be a premise? Zombies are zombies. They exist to be killed.” He paused, then added, “Again.” He glanced at the start page.
“I mean there’s some story about a lab doing dark experiments or something, but it’s really just a shooting and stabbing game.
” He looked back at Shane. “It’s pretty easy.
And I’ll teach you so you don’t get us both killed right away. ”
“Uh, yes, that sounds good.” Shane's tone turned more formal with Dominic standing nearby. “What do I need to know?”
Onyx was just as tense; it seemed like the only one in the room who wasn’t was Dominic. But he wasn’t ready to be done playing yet.
He wasn’t ready to return to reality.
Onyx gave Shane the quick rundown on controls, told him what to look for on screen, then loaded up the game he’d started a few weeks ago. It was creepy, and he wasn’t the best at it, but it was something different, at least.
“There!” Onyx pressed the button to shoot one of the zombies quickly. “Right there, in the corner!”
“Got it!” Shane hit the flamethrower instead of the grenade, a short-range weapon that wasn’t nearly long enough to reach the corner where the zombies were coming at them, and Onyx snickered.
“Shit, hold on.” Shane pressed the right button, and there was a burst of flames as the grenade exploded, destroying the zombies. “On the left, nine o’clock.”