Bay tried to angle his light up toward him, but the stranger clucked his tongue, and somehow the sound came off threatening enough his hand froze with the light hovering by his waist.
“Straight to the point,” the stranger said, and then he reached for something and tore it off the side of his neck. He tossed the item onto the ground at Bay’s feet, waiting for him to get a good look and process what it was.
Voice modulator. Expensive tech that was produced by Void Technologies. It had adhesive that allowed it to comfortably seal over a person’s neck. Vibrations altered the sound of their voice whenever they spoke, changing it just enough for it not to be recognizable if someone wasn’t anticipating it.
“How’s it feel to be watched without knowing? My brother wasn’t really a fan when you did it to him,” the stranger said, only this time the voice was slightly different.
And entirely familiar.
“Sila?” Bay would have recognized that voice anywhere and it was like being hit with an ice bath a second before his words really registered. He’d mentioned his brother… “Rin.”
“Are you asking, Kitten? Kind of sounds like you’re asking.”
“What—” The arm holding the flashlight dropped to his side, his mind struggling to come to terms with what was going on.Rinhad followed him? “What are you doing out here? How…You knew?”
“That you’re a creepy stalker?” he hummed. “Oh yes, we knew.”
Bay had never spoken with Rin before, but he’d seen him a couple of times with Sila on campus when he was visiting. Unlike his twin, he attended the Academy on the other side of the city, a school training cadets how to solve crimes and deal with criminals. Something Bay fell under both categories for in this particular instance.
“Let’s talk about this,” he said, because even though he’d done something wrong first by spying on Sila, there could be no good reason for Rin to want to confront him all the way out here. In the dark. Alone. “I’ll apologize to him, of course.”
“You will not speak to him or of him,” Rin stated, his tone dropping an octave, as though the very idea made him angry.
“Of course,” Bay found himself agreeing out of self-preservation alone.
Rin was quiet for a moment before tilting his head. The darkness prevented Bay from getting a good look at his expression, but the beam from the flashlight managed to capture a vague outline of his general form at least. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not,” Bay insisted, only…He might be. He wasn’t entirely sure, to be honest. The problem with having an unhealthy obsession was it made it difficult to control those impulses, even if he was well intentioned.
“You suffer from hyper fixation,” Rin accused, only it didn’t so much as sound like an accusation as a matter of fact. Like it was no great hardship for him to have so clearly figured Bay out. “If your obsessiveness was easy to shake, you would have done so on your own long before now.”
Bay didn’t bother replying, choking up when Rin took a frightening step closer, his larger form practically looming in the darkness even from the ten-foot distance between them.
A distance that was slowly getting shorter and shorter with each passing breath.
His right foot slid backward in the dirt, but he froze all over again when that had Rin chiding him like a child.
“Not yet,” Rin said. “We’ve got to establish a few things before.”
“Before what?” Was he about to have to fight a cadet out in the middle of a dark forest? He’d been up for this going a lot of ways, but that hadn’t really been one of them. Hand to hand combat wasn’t really his forte. “How about we go somewhere and talk this out? I’m sure you’re upset—”
“I’m not,” he disagreed.
Bay frowned because that sounded sincere. “Then….why…?”
“I’m helping you,” Rin told him and, when that only had Bay’s frown deepening, he added, “We’re going to get it out of your system.”
He threw up a hand when the cadet was less than five feet away, blowing a shaky breath when Rin actually stopped his advance. “Please, you’re frightening me. This is inappropriate. I’m your brother’s teacher and—”
Rin laughed viciously, causing Bay to bristle. “We’re both of legal age here,” he said once he was done. “What’s the problem? Are you upset that, unlike my brother, I’m willing? Does that not do it for you,Professor?”
“You can’t be serious?” His earlier comment came back to Bay then and his eyes went wide. “You can’t honestly mean…”
“I can, and I do.”
Bay might not be able to see him very well, but all of his instincts were screaming that he was currently facing a predator. The skin on his arms was prickling and his breathing had turned into short, low intakes of breath, almost as though his body was trying to make as little sound or movement as it could to avoid drawing more attention.
It was futile, that much was apparent and, if Bay didn’t think of some way to defuse the situation soon, he had no doubt Rin would follow through on his threats, vague as they’d been.
