AI RPS: Chimera 5/?
AI RPS Fic: Chimera Part 5/?
Title: Chimera
Author: nymphaea1
Rating: R
Pairing: Adam/Kris, others
Warnings: Some sexualized violence in earlier sections.
Author's Note: This is just a short section. Because of my present schedule I'm not going to have time to post anything further until ~the 20th and didn't want for a month to go by without an update.
Summary:
In 1683 the first boat carrying fey landed in Virginia. Receiving ill welcome from the young American colonies, most of the passengers and the ones who followed after chose to go west, eventually establishing the new kingdom of Western Faerie in the Pacific Northwest. Distrust of Faerie persisted in the east and traveled outwards as the United States
and its ally, the Kingdom of Texas, spread west into the lands bordering those claimed by the fey.
Two years ago Kris Allen, lost to himself after a bitter three-year war, answered a newspaper ad and headed west to the chaotic borderland known as South California. He'd hoped, in a land with no loyalties, he could find respite from his own divided nature. What he found was something else.
Older Sections
They sat in the packed dirt a few feet from the edge of the cliff slumped against each other in mutual collapse. The entire Canyon lay spread out before them, its borders spreading away further than the eye could see. Looking across that vast space, Kris had the uncomfortable realization of just how big the place really was. Everyone always talked about LA like it was the biggest city on the west coast, but he wondered if that were really true-not with this space just lurking.
It was hard to believe it was just two days ago that he’d climbed down there with Mike. It almost felt like a different life entirely.
The trip back up had been difficult. One of Mikshva’s people had come to get them just after dawn when the Current was low enough for Kris to withstand. She’d led them not to the carefully carved out stairs or lifts built for the tourists, but to a place in the cliff face with handholds hacked into the rock. Every thirty feet or so there had been a wide enough ledge for the two of them to pause just long enough to get their breath before continuing up again.
By the end all they’d been able to do was drag themselves into the meager shade of a few wilting bushes and pretty much crumple to the ground. They sat there in silence, passing the last of the water bottles between them.
A trow’s head popped up over the edge of the cliff face followed by the rest of him as he cleared the ledge. He gave them a quick nod and then went waltzing off down the path, not even breathing heavily.
“Show off,” Adam said, bumping at Kris’s shoulder with his own.
“Seriously,” Kris said, grinning up at the sky. He felt actually pretty happy. They’d made it out. Sure he was filthy and tired and was hungry enough to kill and eat an entire cow. But that could be dealt with.
“Let’s go home,” he said.
~*~*~*~*~
The cabbie looked back in the mirror for the third time in the last ten minutes. Kris tightened his grip on Adam’s hand and silently fumed. Adam just murmured something incomprehensible and leaned more solidly into Kris. He wasn’t precisely asleep, but it was kind of obvious he’d pretty much reached the end of himself.
Kris didn’t know if it was the connection between them or just something peculiar to Adam himself, but he was feeling somewhat protective and those looks of the guy up front weren’t helping.
Cars tended to break down too close to the Canyon, so the two of them had hiked the half-mile from the ledge to the road where the taxis waited. They’d basically fallen into the first car, just wanting to be out of there. Their driver had turned around, taken one look at Kris and then at Adam-or more pointedly at Adam’s bruised wrists and the finger marks on his face-and given Kris a knowing smirk. Like he thought he knew exactly why Kris had come down to that part of town and that maybe Kris would like some congratulations on his conquest.
Kris had just ostentatiously taken Adam’s hand and told the guy the directions to Danny’s. Adam had given him a surprised, pleased look and curled into him a bit. Most of the fey in the Division had turned to physical contact in times of emotional distress. Kris really should have remembered that yesterday. It was a pretty simple thing to do-and besides, it was kind of nice. The tingling warmth Kris associated with Adam’s magic buzzed lightly in the points of contact between them and sent faint wisps up Kris’s arm.
The driver took advantage of a red light to give them another furtive glance over his shoulder, licking his lips as he did it. Kris finally gave into his pettier instincts and yanked his pack to the side to reveal the knife tucked into his belt. Kris thought for a terrible moment that the guy might get even more excited but then he twitched his eyes back to the road and kept them there.
The slow grind of LA traffic at last brought them to the front gates of the complex. Adam threw about twice the amount of the fare in the cabbie’s general direction and slithered out of the car. Kris had other ideas about what the creep deserved, but settled for his best glare before following Adam to the curb.
Kris punched in the access code and together they walked up the drive.
The complex before them was a sprawling hodge-podge that had kind of grown up around the main building. Lil’s family had somehow acquired the old mansion back in the 30s from the predecessors to the Triad. The details had always been a little vague on that. They were the ones who’d started the program-at first it had just been a home for destitute women and children. As the project grew, new wings had been tacked on, destroying what elegance remained to the older house. Now their mission was as varied as the architecture. Mostly they offered a bed and food to whoever needed it for three day periods. But they also acted as a half-way house for the harder cases as they transitioned out of prison or rehab. Just last year Lil had charmed enough money from some of their sponsors to open up a small school and daycare so local families could afford to leave their kids somewhere safe and still work.
It was Kris’s job to walk perimeter everyday to make sure no one had breached the protective spells etched into every surface of the outside walls. Other than that he supervised the small crew whose main purpose was keeping the peace on the inside. They had problem cases pretty often, but it wasn’t too difficult, especially after the Division.
That might be about to change.
“Look,” Kris said, grabbing Adam’s arm before they reached the main door. “You really need to let me make some explanations when we get in there.”
Adam just raised an eyebrow.
Kris sighed. “It’s just my boss-Danny-he doesn’t really like fey very much.”
Adam’s look became distinctly cold. “I see.”
“No, you don’t, so don’t go making assumptions.” Kris knew his frustration was making him seem angrier than he really meant to be. Adam was probably not too far off in what he was currently thinking about Danny, but, well, Danny had given Kris a new life when he’d needed it and he could be decent in ways Kris wasn’t always capable of. And there was the fact that he’d known Danny for two years, not a day and a half.
“It’s your house,” Adam said crisply.
Yeah, this was going to be just perfect.
A quick tour found Danny in his office. A small relief there-Kris hadn’t been looking forward to having this conversation in one of the common rooms.
Danny grabbed Kris the moment he walked in the room and shook him, hard.
“Where the hell have you been?” Danny said, giving him another shake. “You were due two days ago.”
It was a measure of Danny’s emotional state that he hadn’t noticed Adam lurking in the doorway. It was kind of nice to be worried about, but-“You can let go of me, Danny. Something came up, is all. We have the stuff. It’s fine.”
“Something came up?!?!” Danny at least chose to let go of Kris’s arms. His eyes flickered up to Adam and darkened. “Mike told us you’d left to go after someone. In the middle of that, that place, at night.”
“Mike got back okay?” Kris realized he’d been subconsciously trusting the Sanctuary to take care of him, but it was a relief to get confirmation.
Danny crossed his arms. “Yes, Mike was here. He brought the Triad’s price with him. Now, what is that?” he asked, jerking his head in Adam’s direction.
Kris risked a look back at Adam. Thankfully he was staying quiet, but the look he was giving Danny made his interactions with Mikshva seem positively affectionate.
“He’s . . . Adam.” It was not really a satisfactory explanation, but it was all Kris really had.
“And you risked yourself, your mission, for that? He’s a-“
“They were hurting him,” Kris rushed in before Danny could finish that sentence. He didn’t know if Adam could actually turn someone into a frog, but that was a question best left untested.
“What the fey do to each other is none of our business. What did you expect from them? It’s what they do.”
“They were human,” Adam snapped. “The ones who did this, they were human.”
Kris turned around to discover that Adam had pulled his sleeve back to reveal the wounds on his arm. Kris had an inkling of what it cost him to show those things to people. He raised a hand, wanting to tell Adam it was okay, he didn’t have to do this, but Adam went on.
“They tortured three of my friends. And then they killed them. One after another, so we could watch, so we’d know what was coming to us. They thought it was fun. They were laughing.”
“Adam,” Kris said, closing his hands on Adam’s wrists. Adam stilled, though Kris could still feel his pulse jumping too fast beneath his skin.
“Is it true?”
Oh God. Kris just glared at Danny over his shoulder and turned back to Adam.
“I’m sorry. Really.” Danny did sound sincere. Surly about it, but that was Danny for you.
Adam jerked his head, once. The perfect arrogance in the tilt of his head was vaguely familiar. A bit like the Sidhe, but not entirely.
Kris let go of Adam’s wrists to pull his shirt sleeve back down. He fished in his pocket for his keys and pressed them into Adam’s palm.
“I have a kind of bungalow in the back of the property. It’s hard to miss. There’s a shower off the bedroom and there should be some clean sweatpants at least. Okay?”
Adam hesitated a moment but then nodded. Kris waited until he’d gone off down the hallway before turning back to Danny.
“Good job, man. Seriously.”
Danny at least had the grace to look apologetic. Either that or he was constipated-though Kris really thought it was the first one. “I didn’t realize.”
“That was pretty obvious.”
“You know it’s not that I want them hurt. It’s just-“ He fell off, gesturing lamely.
That you want them away from you, Kris thought. It wasn’t anything new.
“He’s going to be here for a year, so you’re going to have to figure it out.”
“A year!” Danny sputtered.
Kris was really too tired to be having this conversation. “Yes, a year. I saved his life. Apparently faerie servants are the customary thank you gift.”
Danny just sat down heavily at his desk. Kris could live with that. “I am tired. And dirty. And starving. So I am going to go take care of that, not necessarily in that order. We can talk about this later.”
Kris didn’t even bother to wait for an answer. He wanted to give Adam some space, so he stopped in the staff locker room long enough to grab a change of clothes and a quick shower before heading to the house.
He found Adam in his kitchenette reheating the leftovers from Kris’s fridge. His hair was slicked down and he was wearing a pair of Kris’s sweatpants and a t-shirt. The rumpled clothes and the sight of his pale skinny ankles hanging out beneath Kris’s too-short pants made him seem a lot younger.
Kris did some quick mental calculations about the last time he’d actually ordered food and decided the Chinese food Adam was dividing up wouldn’t kill them.
His mother would be appalled.
Kris told himself it would have been worse to let Adam starve to death.
Afterwards Adam sat on Kris’s small loveseat, knees curled into himself.
“I can just sleep here,” he said uncertainly. “Or if you had a chair, I could . . . “
“Okay, no,” Kris said, sitting beside him. “That’s not happening. I have a bed. You might have heard of them. They’re pretty awesome.”
“I told you, it’s customary,” Adam said. “It’s not the sort of thing you play around with.”
“Who’s playing?” Kris asked. “Look, I think we both know I fail pretty hard at this faerie master thing, so it’s not like I’m going to know if we’re doing it wrong. Besides, I won’t get any sleep if you’re torturing yourself in a chair all night, and aren’t you supposed to protect me from that sort of thing?”
“I guess.”
“Good.”
But Adam was still sitting in that closed in posture that Kris was already beginning to dislike. He looked apologetic, like he was trying to make up for his unasked for presence in Kris’s life by making himself as small as possible. Now that it had been over a day, the bruises were settling in dark and ugly on his face and neck. Kris hated it, all of it-that look on Adam’s face and the scars and the damn cabbie and even Danny, just a bit.
“I can probably do something about those,” Kris said, gesturing at Adam.
Adam startled and looked down at his arms. “I think these are beyond either of our abilities.”
“I meant the rest of it.”
“Oh.” Adam gave him a small shy smile and turned towards him. “Yes-I’d like that.”
He hesitated for a minute but then pulled his borrowed t-shirt over his head. There was an ugly wound on his collarbone that Kris didn’t remember being there. Closer inspection revealed even puncture marks in the swollen flesh.
“Mikshva?” Kris asked, remembering those teeth. And the way the llus-gorn had looked at Adam, like he was sex and food at the same time. He couldn’t imagine it, letting those teeth anywhere near you. Not after what happened two nights ago.
Adam nodded. “Blood is a bit crude, but it’s our oldest and in some ways most powerful magic.”
“I still don’t like it.”
Adam looked away. “It was the one thing I could give him that wasn’t permanent.”
“I know it was necessary,” Kris said, touching Adam’s knee to get him to turn back. “But I don’t want you doing things like that in the future-not for me, okay? Not if there’s another choice.”
Adam’s face scrunched up. “It’s not like I was in a big hurry for a repeat performance.”
Kris had to be satisfied with that. He sat back a bit, trying to ready himself for the healing spell. It had been a long time since he had used magic for anything like this. The people at the house had unpleasant relationships with magic in general and it wasn’t often that Kris had cause to do more than strengthen the spells on the perimeter.
He let himself become aware of the familiar presence of magic coming in from the garden outside. Compared to the onrushing torrents of the Current, it was almost friendly. He sank down into his sense of it and reached for the spell that seemed most appropriate to it. He chose one of the older, simpler melodies, ornamenting it just a bit to shape the magic the way he wanted it.
He pictured it solidifying in his hands, warm and soothing. He smoothed it across Adam’s wrists first, careful of the knife marks. He moved tentatively to Adam’s shoulders, shifting the key a bit and adding a bit more strength to his voice as he funneled the spell into the bite mark. It resisted for a moment but then eased away under Kris’s persistence.
He slid his fingers up Adam’s neck, settling his hands on either side of his face. Adam’s eyes fluttered shut, his ridiculous lashes brushing at Kris’s thumbs as he swept them across Adam’s cheekbones. His skin was warm and perfect under Kris’s hands and now that the makeup was gone golden freckles stood out in stark relief against the paleness of his face. Kris lifted his hand to brush his fingers at last across Adam’s lips, easing the last of the bruises. Adam took a deep breath and opened his eyes. The pupils were blown, leaving just a sliver of blue.
Kris felt himself leaning forward, aware of an all consuming want.
“Thank you,” Adam said, voice a little rough. Kris had to tear his hands away before he did something embarrassing.
“Your voice is lovely,” Adam said, still in that voice.
“Uh, thanks,” Kris said, wiping his hands on his sweatpants. “Maybe, umm, we should go to bed? I don’t know about you, but I’m beat.”
Right, Allen. Going to bed with him is totally going to help.
Adam just followed Kris into the bedroom and curled up in the covers on the far side of the bed while Kris closed all the blinds.
Kris slid in beside him, completely unprepared for when Adam shimmied over, threw an arm across Kris’s chest and pressed his face into Kris’s shoulder.
“Um,” Kris said, a little afraid Adam had picked up on his earlier difficulty.
Adam’s bright magic washed across him, warm and perfect and so much stronger than before.
Kris gasped, breathing it in. He found himself standing in the middle of his uncle’s orchard. It was one of those perfect fall days, the sky so very blue you could almost touch it, the air so crisp and vital you felt every part of yourself buzzing and just alive with it. And there, in his hand, the year’s first apple, skin glowing and golden. The taste of it was on his tongue, tart and sweet and so vivid it seemed like it could have nothing to do with those humbled globes you found on supermarket shelves.
He heard his cousins’ laughter behind him and spun around. The rolling plains of home were all around him, green and gentle in the distance.
“Oh, that’s nice,” Adam said, curling in closer.
The vision faded from Kris’s sight but remained, somehow, in a place just beneath his skin. Adam’s warmth melted into him, into muscle and bone and deeper. Kris felt something small break inside him, part of that tightness he always carried in his chest these days. It hurt, but in a good way, in a way that left space for something else.
It had been a long time since he’d lain like this with someone-just for the physical comfort and the sheer pleasure of not being alone. It’s something he and Katy had never lost-not even at the end when he was so lost to himself and she had to leave him behind or drown with him. He’d missed it more than anything else-and there had been times when he’d headed out for the night, deliberately met the laughing eyes of one of the girls in the bar and let her take him home for the night. But that had just been about blunting the edges of his skin-starvation and rarely anything like this at all.
Kris realized he’d been basically petting the smooth skin of Adam’s broad back. But Adam just made a pleased snuffle against Kris’s shoulder and Kris decided to allow himself the indulgence. If Adam didn’t want to be manhandled, he could have stayed on his side of the bed.
It felt good, like maybe something he could get used to. Kris closed his eyes and let himself just. Breathe.
Part 6
Title: Chimera
Author: nymphaea1
Rating: R
Pairing: Adam/Kris, others
Warnings: Some sexualized violence in earlier sections.
Author's Note: This is just a short section. Because of my present schedule I'm not going to have time to post anything further until ~the 20th and didn't want for a month to go by without an update.
Summary:
In 1683 the first boat carrying fey landed in Virginia. Receiving ill welcome from the young American colonies, most of the passengers and the ones who followed after chose to go west, eventually establishing the new kingdom of Western Faerie in the Pacific Northwest. Distrust of Faerie persisted in the east and traveled outwards as the United States
and its ally, the Kingdom of Texas, spread west into the lands bordering those claimed by the fey.
Two years ago Kris Allen, lost to himself after a bitter three-year war, answered a newspaper ad and headed west to the chaotic borderland known as South California. He'd hoped, in a land with no loyalties, he could find respite from his own divided nature. What he found was something else.
Older Sections
They sat in the packed dirt a few feet from the edge of the cliff slumped against each other in mutual collapse. The entire Canyon lay spread out before them, its borders spreading away further than the eye could see. Looking across that vast space, Kris had the uncomfortable realization of just how big the place really was. Everyone always talked about LA like it was the biggest city on the west coast, but he wondered if that were really true-not with this space just lurking.
It was hard to believe it was just two days ago that he’d climbed down there with Mike. It almost felt like a different life entirely.
The trip back up had been difficult. One of Mikshva’s people had come to get them just after dawn when the Current was low enough for Kris to withstand. She’d led them not to the carefully carved out stairs or lifts built for the tourists, but to a place in the cliff face with handholds hacked into the rock. Every thirty feet or so there had been a wide enough ledge for the two of them to pause just long enough to get their breath before continuing up again.
By the end all they’d been able to do was drag themselves into the meager shade of a few wilting bushes and pretty much crumple to the ground. They sat there in silence, passing the last of the water bottles between them.
A trow’s head popped up over the edge of the cliff face followed by the rest of him as he cleared the ledge. He gave them a quick nod and then went waltzing off down the path, not even breathing heavily.
“Show off,” Adam said, bumping at Kris’s shoulder with his own.
“Seriously,” Kris said, grinning up at the sky. He felt actually pretty happy. They’d made it out. Sure he was filthy and tired and was hungry enough to kill and eat an entire cow. But that could be dealt with.
“Let’s go home,” he said.
~*~*~*~*~
The cabbie looked back in the mirror for the third time in the last ten minutes. Kris tightened his grip on Adam’s hand and silently fumed. Adam just murmured something incomprehensible and leaned more solidly into Kris. He wasn’t precisely asleep, but it was kind of obvious he’d pretty much reached the end of himself.
Kris didn’t know if it was the connection between them or just something peculiar to Adam himself, but he was feeling somewhat protective and those looks of the guy up front weren’t helping.
Cars tended to break down too close to the Canyon, so the two of them had hiked the half-mile from the ledge to the road where the taxis waited. They’d basically fallen into the first car, just wanting to be out of there. Their driver had turned around, taken one look at Kris and then at Adam-or more pointedly at Adam’s bruised wrists and the finger marks on his face-and given Kris a knowing smirk. Like he thought he knew exactly why Kris had come down to that part of town and that maybe Kris would like some congratulations on his conquest.
Kris had just ostentatiously taken Adam’s hand and told the guy the directions to Danny’s. Adam had given him a surprised, pleased look and curled into him a bit. Most of the fey in the Division had turned to physical contact in times of emotional distress. Kris really should have remembered that yesterday. It was a pretty simple thing to do-and besides, it was kind of nice. The tingling warmth Kris associated with Adam’s magic buzzed lightly in the points of contact between them and sent faint wisps up Kris’s arm.
The driver took advantage of a red light to give them another furtive glance over his shoulder, licking his lips as he did it. Kris finally gave into his pettier instincts and yanked his pack to the side to reveal the knife tucked into his belt. Kris thought for a terrible moment that the guy might get even more excited but then he twitched his eyes back to the road and kept them there.
The slow grind of LA traffic at last brought them to the front gates of the complex. Adam threw about twice the amount of the fare in the cabbie’s general direction and slithered out of the car. Kris had other ideas about what the creep deserved, but settled for his best glare before following Adam to the curb.
Kris punched in the access code and together they walked up the drive.
The complex before them was a sprawling hodge-podge that had kind of grown up around the main building. Lil’s family had somehow acquired the old mansion back in the 30s from the predecessors to the Triad. The details had always been a little vague on that. They were the ones who’d started the program-at first it had just been a home for destitute women and children. As the project grew, new wings had been tacked on, destroying what elegance remained to the older house. Now their mission was as varied as the architecture. Mostly they offered a bed and food to whoever needed it for three day periods. But they also acted as a half-way house for the harder cases as they transitioned out of prison or rehab. Just last year Lil had charmed enough money from some of their sponsors to open up a small school and daycare so local families could afford to leave their kids somewhere safe and still work.
It was Kris’s job to walk perimeter everyday to make sure no one had breached the protective spells etched into every surface of the outside walls. Other than that he supervised the small crew whose main purpose was keeping the peace on the inside. They had problem cases pretty often, but it wasn’t too difficult, especially after the Division.
That might be about to change.
“Look,” Kris said, grabbing Adam’s arm before they reached the main door. “You really need to let me make some explanations when we get in there.”
Adam just raised an eyebrow.
Kris sighed. “It’s just my boss-Danny-he doesn’t really like fey very much.”
Adam’s look became distinctly cold. “I see.”
“No, you don’t, so don’t go making assumptions.” Kris knew his frustration was making him seem angrier than he really meant to be. Adam was probably not too far off in what he was currently thinking about Danny, but, well, Danny had given Kris a new life when he’d needed it and he could be decent in ways Kris wasn’t always capable of. And there was the fact that he’d known Danny for two years, not a day and a half.
“It’s your house,” Adam said crisply.
Yeah, this was going to be just perfect.
A quick tour found Danny in his office. A small relief there-Kris hadn’t been looking forward to having this conversation in one of the common rooms.
Danny grabbed Kris the moment he walked in the room and shook him, hard.
“Where the hell have you been?” Danny said, giving him another shake. “You were due two days ago.”
It was a measure of Danny’s emotional state that he hadn’t noticed Adam lurking in the doorway. It was kind of nice to be worried about, but-“You can let go of me, Danny. Something came up, is all. We have the stuff. It’s fine.”
“Something came up?!?!” Danny at least chose to let go of Kris’s arms. His eyes flickered up to Adam and darkened. “Mike told us you’d left to go after someone. In the middle of that, that place, at night.”
“Mike got back okay?” Kris realized he’d been subconsciously trusting the Sanctuary to take care of him, but it was a relief to get confirmation.
Danny crossed his arms. “Yes, Mike was here. He brought the Triad’s price with him. Now, what is that?” he asked, jerking his head in Adam’s direction.
Kris risked a look back at Adam. Thankfully he was staying quiet, but the look he was giving Danny made his interactions with Mikshva seem positively affectionate.
“He’s . . . Adam.” It was not really a satisfactory explanation, but it was all Kris really had.
“And you risked yourself, your mission, for that? He’s a-“
“They were hurting him,” Kris rushed in before Danny could finish that sentence. He didn’t know if Adam could actually turn someone into a frog, but that was a question best left untested.
“What the fey do to each other is none of our business. What did you expect from them? It’s what they do.”
“They were human,” Adam snapped. “The ones who did this, they were human.”
Kris turned around to discover that Adam had pulled his sleeve back to reveal the wounds on his arm. Kris had an inkling of what it cost him to show those things to people. He raised a hand, wanting to tell Adam it was okay, he didn’t have to do this, but Adam went on.
“They tortured three of my friends. And then they killed them. One after another, so we could watch, so we’d know what was coming to us. They thought it was fun. They were laughing.”
“Adam,” Kris said, closing his hands on Adam’s wrists. Adam stilled, though Kris could still feel his pulse jumping too fast beneath his skin.
“Is it true?”
Oh God. Kris just glared at Danny over his shoulder and turned back to Adam.
“I’m sorry. Really.” Danny did sound sincere. Surly about it, but that was Danny for you.
Adam jerked his head, once. The perfect arrogance in the tilt of his head was vaguely familiar. A bit like the Sidhe, but not entirely.
Kris let go of Adam’s wrists to pull his shirt sleeve back down. He fished in his pocket for his keys and pressed them into Adam’s palm.
“I have a kind of bungalow in the back of the property. It’s hard to miss. There’s a shower off the bedroom and there should be some clean sweatpants at least. Okay?”
Adam hesitated a moment but then nodded. Kris waited until he’d gone off down the hallway before turning back to Danny.
“Good job, man. Seriously.”
Danny at least had the grace to look apologetic. Either that or he was constipated-though Kris really thought it was the first one. “I didn’t realize.”
“That was pretty obvious.”
“You know it’s not that I want them hurt. It’s just-“ He fell off, gesturing lamely.
That you want them away from you, Kris thought. It wasn’t anything new.
“He’s going to be here for a year, so you’re going to have to figure it out.”
“A year!” Danny sputtered.
Kris was really too tired to be having this conversation. “Yes, a year. I saved his life. Apparently faerie servants are the customary thank you gift.”
Danny just sat down heavily at his desk. Kris could live with that. “I am tired. And dirty. And starving. So I am going to go take care of that, not necessarily in that order. We can talk about this later.”
Kris didn’t even bother to wait for an answer. He wanted to give Adam some space, so he stopped in the staff locker room long enough to grab a change of clothes and a quick shower before heading to the house.
He found Adam in his kitchenette reheating the leftovers from Kris’s fridge. His hair was slicked down and he was wearing a pair of Kris’s sweatpants and a t-shirt. The rumpled clothes and the sight of his pale skinny ankles hanging out beneath Kris’s too-short pants made him seem a lot younger.
Kris did some quick mental calculations about the last time he’d actually ordered food and decided the Chinese food Adam was dividing up wouldn’t kill them.
His mother would be appalled.
Kris told himself it would have been worse to let Adam starve to death.
Afterwards Adam sat on Kris’s small loveseat, knees curled into himself.
“I can just sleep here,” he said uncertainly. “Or if you had a chair, I could . . . “
“Okay, no,” Kris said, sitting beside him. “That’s not happening. I have a bed. You might have heard of them. They’re pretty awesome.”
“I told you, it’s customary,” Adam said. “It’s not the sort of thing you play around with.”
“Who’s playing?” Kris asked. “Look, I think we both know I fail pretty hard at this faerie master thing, so it’s not like I’m going to know if we’re doing it wrong. Besides, I won’t get any sleep if you’re torturing yourself in a chair all night, and aren’t you supposed to protect me from that sort of thing?”
“I guess.”
“Good.”
But Adam was still sitting in that closed in posture that Kris was already beginning to dislike. He looked apologetic, like he was trying to make up for his unasked for presence in Kris’s life by making himself as small as possible. Now that it had been over a day, the bruises were settling in dark and ugly on his face and neck. Kris hated it, all of it-that look on Adam’s face and the scars and the damn cabbie and even Danny, just a bit.
“I can probably do something about those,” Kris said, gesturing at Adam.
Adam startled and looked down at his arms. “I think these are beyond either of our abilities.”
“I meant the rest of it.”
“Oh.” Adam gave him a small shy smile and turned towards him. “Yes-I’d like that.”
He hesitated for a minute but then pulled his borrowed t-shirt over his head. There was an ugly wound on his collarbone that Kris didn’t remember being there. Closer inspection revealed even puncture marks in the swollen flesh.
“Mikshva?” Kris asked, remembering those teeth. And the way the llus-gorn had looked at Adam, like he was sex and food at the same time. He couldn’t imagine it, letting those teeth anywhere near you. Not after what happened two nights ago.
Adam nodded. “Blood is a bit crude, but it’s our oldest and in some ways most powerful magic.”
“I still don’t like it.”
Adam looked away. “It was the one thing I could give him that wasn’t permanent.”
“I know it was necessary,” Kris said, touching Adam’s knee to get him to turn back. “But I don’t want you doing things like that in the future-not for me, okay? Not if there’s another choice.”
Adam’s face scrunched up. “It’s not like I was in a big hurry for a repeat performance.”
Kris had to be satisfied with that. He sat back a bit, trying to ready himself for the healing spell. It had been a long time since he had used magic for anything like this. The people at the house had unpleasant relationships with magic in general and it wasn’t often that Kris had cause to do more than strengthen the spells on the perimeter.
He let himself become aware of the familiar presence of magic coming in from the garden outside. Compared to the onrushing torrents of the Current, it was almost friendly. He sank down into his sense of it and reached for the spell that seemed most appropriate to it. He chose one of the older, simpler melodies, ornamenting it just a bit to shape the magic the way he wanted it.
He pictured it solidifying in his hands, warm and soothing. He smoothed it across Adam’s wrists first, careful of the knife marks. He moved tentatively to Adam’s shoulders, shifting the key a bit and adding a bit more strength to his voice as he funneled the spell into the bite mark. It resisted for a moment but then eased away under Kris’s persistence.
He slid his fingers up Adam’s neck, settling his hands on either side of his face. Adam’s eyes fluttered shut, his ridiculous lashes brushing at Kris’s thumbs as he swept them across Adam’s cheekbones. His skin was warm and perfect under Kris’s hands and now that the makeup was gone golden freckles stood out in stark relief against the paleness of his face. Kris lifted his hand to brush his fingers at last across Adam’s lips, easing the last of the bruises. Adam took a deep breath and opened his eyes. The pupils were blown, leaving just a sliver of blue.
Kris felt himself leaning forward, aware of an all consuming want.
“Thank you,” Adam said, voice a little rough. Kris had to tear his hands away before he did something embarrassing.
“Your voice is lovely,” Adam said, still in that voice.
“Uh, thanks,” Kris said, wiping his hands on his sweatpants. “Maybe, umm, we should go to bed? I don’t know about you, but I’m beat.”
Right, Allen. Going to bed with him is totally going to help.
Adam just followed Kris into the bedroom and curled up in the covers on the far side of the bed while Kris closed all the blinds.
Kris slid in beside him, completely unprepared for when Adam shimmied over, threw an arm across Kris’s chest and pressed his face into Kris’s shoulder.
“Um,” Kris said, a little afraid Adam had picked up on his earlier difficulty.
Adam’s bright magic washed across him, warm and perfect and so much stronger than before.
Kris gasped, breathing it in. He found himself standing in the middle of his uncle’s orchard. It was one of those perfect fall days, the sky so very blue you could almost touch it, the air so crisp and vital you felt every part of yourself buzzing and just alive with it. And there, in his hand, the year’s first apple, skin glowing and golden. The taste of it was on his tongue, tart and sweet and so vivid it seemed like it could have nothing to do with those humbled globes you found on supermarket shelves.
He heard his cousins’ laughter behind him and spun around. The rolling plains of home were all around him, green and gentle in the distance.
“Oh, that’s nice,” Adam said, curling in closer.
The vision faded from Kris’s sight but remained, somehow, in a place just beneath his skin. Adam’s warmth melted into him, into muscle and bone and deeper. Kris felt something small break inside him, part of that tightness he always carried in his chest these days. It hurt, but in a good way, in a way that left space for something else.
It had been a long time since he’d lain like this with someone-just for the physical comfort and the sheer pleasure of not being alone. It’s something he and Katy had never lost-not even at the end when he was so lost to himself and she had to leave him behind or drown with him. He’d missed it more than anything else-and there had been times when he’d headed out for the night, deliberately met the laughing eyes of one of the girls in the bar and let her take him home for the night. But that had just been about blunting the edges of his skin-starvation and rarely anything like this at all.
Kris realized he’d been basically petting the smooth skin of Adam’s broad back. But Adam just made a pleased snuffle against Kris’s shoulder and Kris decided to allow himself the indulgence. If Adam didn’t want to be manhandled, he could have stayed on his side of the bed.
It felt good, like maybe something he could get used to. Kris closed his eyes and let himself just. Breathe.
Part 6