“You’re favouring your right shoulder and trying to move your head as little as possible,” Arslan corrected.
Marrick stared straight out of the windshield.“I took a tumble off my bike, that’s all.”
Arslan reached out.The grip he took on Marrick’s chin wasn’t painful, but Marrick found he had little choice but to turn to look at Arslan.
“That’s the truth?”Arslan pushed.
It took Marrick a moment to realise what Arslan was trying to find out.
“It’s nothing to do with them.I fell off my bike.They weren’t even on the same side of town as me when it happened.”
Arslan continued to study him for several seconds before he finally released him, apparently content with the explanation.
He started the car, and they drove some way in silence.
“You’re leaving them because you fell off your bike on the other side of town?”Arslan asked eventually.
“I’m leaving,” Marrick ground out.“Because I’m sick of being treated as if I’ll break at the least little thing.I’ve had enough of that to last anyone a lifetime.I’m not going to volunteer for more of the bloody same.”
Arslan drove on in silence for what felt like a long time.Only Marrick’s directions to his house broke the stillness that settled over the interior of the car.
“Have you asked them why they’re so determined to be careful with you?”Arslan said.
“Apparently, someone has drummed it into them that humans are weaker than lions.That we have to be kept safe and cosseted.”There was no way in hell he could have kept the bitterness out of his voice, and he didn’t even try.
“If you’re waiting for me to apologise, you’re going to be disappointed,” Arslan said, very calmly as he manoeuvred around a corner.
“Not every human is like Ryland,” Marrick snapped.“Some of us can look after ourselves.”
The lion’s grip on the steering wheel turned white knuckled, but he didn’t say anything.
By that time, they’d reached his street.Arslan pulled up outside Marrick house and silently took the bike out of the boot of his car for him.
Marrick was too exhausted to really care if the guy was pissed off with him for the way he’d spoken about his boyfriend.All he wanted was to get as far away as possible from every lion on the planet and sleep for the next few years.
“Thanks for the lift,” he managed to mutter.
Hand on the car door, Arslan paused.“Next time you speak to them, perhaps you should ask them why the tradition of lions receiving human sacrifices first started,” he suggested.“And why they are careful to obey my orders regarding humans, when they’re quick to make their own choices on so many other things.”
“Thanks, but I’m not planning to—”
Arslan got in the car without waiting for him to finish his sentence.
“—rush back to chat with them,” Marrick told the empty street.
God, but if he never set eyes on another lion, it would be too soon.Turning away from even the memory of them, he made his way up the path and closed his front door firmly behind him.
Leaning against the dark panelled wood, he could only hope he’d be able to close them out of his mind just as easily.
* * * * *
“Do you think the sacrifices feel this nervous standing on our doorstep?”
Blaine didn’t answer the question, but Luther didn’t really need him to.He’d had never seen Blaine so on edge.He’d never felt so anxious himself, either.
The front door swung open.An older version of Marrick appeared and smiled politely at them.“Hello?”
All Luther could do was blink at the man.He looked exactly how Luther imagined Marrick might look like in twenty-five years’ time, and seeing him only made Luther all the more desperate to have Marrick agree that he wanted to still be with them that far into the future.
