It might have been a slightly more coherent message than the last one he’d left for Arslan.He wasn’t sure anymore.He rubbed at his temple.The longer he was staying away from the professor, the more fuzzy his thinking seemed to be.
With every day that passed, it was becoming harder to be conscious of anything except how much he wanted to be back with Arslan.
“Sorry I can’t get your mobile back for you,” Mark offered, looking from Ryland to the landline Ryland had just used and back again, sympathy shining in his eyes.“You know I’d lend you mine if I still had it.”
Ryland shook his head and traced his fingers over the buttons on the phone.“It’s fine.I just wanted to let him know that I haven’t just disappeared, that I’m okay.”
“Are you okay?”
Ryland met Mark’s gaze for a moment.“Of course I am.”He got the distinct impression that Mark didn’t believe him.“I’ll sure I’ll feel even better about it once the debt is settled.”
Mark smiled slightly.“You’re not the only one.”
Ryland managed to scrape up a smile for him in return.
Mark sighed and looked back to the door on the far side of the hallway.“Best get back to it before Jason catches us skiving off.”
With one last glance at the phone, Ryland followed Mark back into the room that had become his new home over the last week.
He tried to push the professor out of his mind and just get on with it, but he couldn’t help but think of each day he spent away from Arslan as a slightly more horrible form of torture than the last.
* * * * *
“Um, hi.I just… I can explain why I wasn’t there.It’s not that I didn’t want to be there… I mean…” The word faded off into a sigh.“Something came up all of a sudden, and…it’s all a bit complicated.I swear that I’ll explain as soon as I get the chance.I’m really sorry.”
Arslan pressed the button on his answer phone.The next message played.
“I’m sorry I can’t make it to the…to the…” Several seconds of silence played through the speaker.Arslan held his breath, just as he had done every single time he heard the blasted message back, just in case this might be the time when nothing more was said after the hesitation.“I’m sorry that I can’t be at the lecture today.I’m fine, I just— I’ll be able to explain it all next time I see you.”
After spending the last two days hunting for the boy and not being able to find either him or anyone who resembled a brick wall with a snake tattoo, the message that Arslan had discovered when he finally checked the voicemail at his office on Monday morning had left a hell of a lot to be desired.The new one that had come through an hour before he’d arrived at the office on Tuesday morning hadn’t been any better.
No concrete information.Just a tone of voice that made it clear Ryland was trying to hide his pain from his master and failing.
Arslan snarled at the machine, only just resisting the temptation to throw it across the room.It rang, seemingly in fear.Arslan snatched the phone off the hook before the first ring faded from the air.
It wasn’t Ryland.It wasn’t news about Ryland.Arslan put the phone back in its cradle and ran his hand down his face.
Flinging himself back onto the chair at his desk, he glared at the phone.It didn’t seem to be inclined to ring on command again.
Two days’ worth of searching for Ryland had discovered that the boy hadn’t been seen at his office in the maths department or anywhere around the university since their meeting in Ryland’s office last Tuesday.
Fred had been ordered to make enquiries with every friend or acquaintance he could think of, with no success.It was almost a full week since anyone had seen Ryland now, and the only evidence hinting that he hadn’t disappeared off the face of the earth were the three voice messages.One message for Fred on the Tuesday when Ryland had disappeared.One for Arslan, which had come through a few minutes after he’d left for the weekend the previous Friday.And, now, this one warning Arslan not to expect him at the lecture that afternoon.
The knowledge that his pet had disappeared to an undisclosed location for an unspecified period of time wasn’t really a huge improvement on knowing nothing.
All he was sure of was that Ryland had been alive and reasonably well very early that morning.Just the fact he was alive provided sufficient relief for Arslan to be able to take a deep breath.He found himself repeating that little bit of information over and over inside his head, just to relish the joy of knowing it.
The number Ryland had called from was blocked.So, the only other detail Arslan felt certain of was that someone else had been listening to Ryland’s end of the phone call, someone Ryland didn’t entirely trust.
Arslan looked down at his claws.That someone was going to have a hell of a lot of explaining to do when Arslan caught hold of them.If there was a single mark on Ryland, no explanation was going to prove sufficient.
* * * * *
The following Friday, Arslan stormed into the lions’ den.The tire treads in the driveway implied that the sacrifice had already been delivered to the pride and the prospect of seeing another human who wasn’t Ryland standing on the hearth rug was doing nothing to make him feel better about the world.
Stepping over the threshold, he faltered, so exhausted he wasn’t immediately sure if his mind was playing tricks on him.
He turned very slowly towards the door leading into the meeting room.The other lions were there, just as he knew they would be.A naked human stood in the middle of them, that was also just as he expected too, except…
