“I haven’t tried. It’s been a long time for me. Would you like me too?”
“A long time?”
Sundamar grunted. “When Lusheenn was still present and all of my brothers lived, it took a fair amount of effort to find and talk to a single one within our heads. There were many of us back then, and to find them—the right brother—you had to get in their head for a moment to know who they were. That was long ago. Now, with only three of us left, knowing who I’m speaking to or who is speaking to me is natural.”
“Second nature,” she murmured and he nodded. After a moment of silence, she tugged on his binding until she caught his eye in the nightlight. “I’m sorry.”
“What for, pale one?”
“For all your loss. To be the only three left of your kind...”
“It’s not your fault. And,” he gave her a wicked smirk, “if all my brothers were still alive, fighting for your attention would be tedious. We were thousands at one point.”
Yahiro snorted out a laugh. “There are other humans here, you know. I’m not the only one. Other women even and ones who would crave to have protection from you.”Less crazy ones.
“There’s only one who lights me up.”
She winced but liked his words. Her fingers tightened on him. But Quist came to mind and her heart swelled and burst until she thought she was feeling the same light that Sundamar mentioned. When she thought of both of them, her body tied itself up and burst into flames. She was selfish and confused, and wished, for once, that things could be easy.
The silence between them went on, only broken up by the screeches of monsters in the dark and each one pushed her closer to the aliens.If only I could curl up between them, I’d be safe.She choked out an internal laugh again. Her thoughts grew dark as she imagined them swallowing her whole and liking it, liking the golden armor, rippling muscle, and wings between her and the rest of the universe.
“Sundamar? You can try and read my mind if you like.” She wasn’t sure but she thought his body tensed and his gait slightly faltered. “I won’t think of anything unsavory,” she added.Or maybe I will.
He didn’t answer her.
Just in case, she thought of her childhood home and her parents, her younger sister and her unicorns but as the minutes passed and she felt nothing weird in her head and Sundamar remained quiet, she stopped reminiscing.
“I couldn’t,” he said at last.
“Maybe it’s something only you and your brothers can do.”
Yahiro wasn’t surprised.Even humans can’t read each other's minds. The thought sent a shiver down her back.Thank god.
Quist grunted then, taking them both by surprise, his wings elongating and stiffening until Sundamar had to set him down. Yahiro rushed to Quist’s other side and cupped his face. His golden eyes glistened in the stone light.
“You’re awake!” she breathed, shaking with relief.
“Sundamar told you I would be.” He coughed and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest and covering them with his wings. She breathed in deeply his scent of hops and sugar and sweat, and rested her head on his chest to listen to his heart. She was suddenly warm and comfortable, and in a place she never wanted to leave. His slender fingers combed through her messy locks, soothing her further, his breath kissed the top of her head and the smell of it calmed her.
She didn’t know how long she’d been going on with frayed nerves until this moment. Suddenly, the exhaustion of the past day rushed over her and dropped her into the lilting throes of sleep.
Yahiro always got to name the new drugs. The new dregs. The erotic stank of used-up pussy. It turned some men on. Spending enough time around it, it’d begun to turn her on too.
“Cheez-its, man, Cheez-its. Can’t just eat one. Fuck, Smoothie, what’ll be the next one? Puppies?”
She squinched her nose. “Puppies? Let me supply you retriever? Hmm... I’d have to think about it,” she murmured, looking around at the dungeon and the new supply. There was a little bit of everything. Drugs, guns, girls. She wouldn’t look at the last, not if she could keep her cover, because if it broke, their lifespans, hers included, would come to a grinding, winding halt. Their pain was temporary because soon she’d be supplying the villain to the pearly gates.
Then she’d look at the girls. But until then...
Yahiro thumbed through a wad of hundreds and pulled a bill out, only to return to the table and roll it into a joint for her and Snake to share. The cries and whimpers went on in the background but she barely heard them as her mind clouded over with fuzz.
William sat across from them, watching, silently, waiting. His eyes, the eyes she knew so well were dead and calculating. Yahiro breathed in a puff but it did little to calm her nerves. Her nerves were frayed beyond repair, played with, set afire, and stomped into the ground. Sometimes she thought only death or a coma would give her the relief she needed.
But that was too good for her. The girls in the background made it so.
His eyes crinkled when he caught her eye and the side of his mouth quirked up in a smile she couldn’t read. Her insides shrank under his stare, like a turtle hiding from a predator. Her lungs filled with delicious hydroponic weed. Her nose filled with smoke. Her eyes watered. The Snake laughed.
Her mother walked in.
