As the oceanic color of her one visible eye swam and glistened with moisture, the soft smile returned to his face as he brushed her cheek tenderly with the knuckles of his fingers. "I promise. I'll be back. Don't worry. I've got it figured out. The worse that's going to happen is I'll be on probation for the rest of the day and evening. Thanks to your idea about using the rogue's attack as an excuse, even Quin will be hard pressed to stay angry with me." Lips brushed at hers in a brief reassuring gesture before he was stepping away keeping his eyes locked firmly with hers. "I
will be back. Trust me, Ishu." And he knew from the look in her eyes as those words passed from his lips, he could not break his word to her. Saying it aloud had basically set it into stone.
Casting one more crooked smile over his shoulder at her, he walked out the front doors and started down the steps towards the eagle statue that stood like a stalwart guardian to the building. In the light of dawn the shadows were dark on the brass sculpted feathers while the golden sunlight gave the bird's open beak and penetrating gaze a firey and threatening cast. Another echo from the old world that the Gamatoms were consuming little by little. Shaking his head and trying to coast on the high from Ishu's kiss, he turned away from it and headed to the side of the building where his car waited.
"Cade!" a booming voice called out, instantly making Cade tense up as he turned towards the sound. Valheru. Again. "Where have you been, man? Quin is absolutely livid that you didn't show up for the hunt last night. I was sent to come and get you again-- Whoa...what the fuck happened to you?" The larger man took his time sauntering like a behemoth towards him and Cade tried not to look panicked as he cast a defensive glance at the doors of the library. Like a soft echo in his head, he could hear Ishu's heartbeat and for a paranoid second he was certain that Val could hear it too. But Valheru's glance at the building was brief and his eyes didn't linger. Still, Cade did not relax as the bigger Gamatom continued to talk to him.
Valheru's red eyes danced up and down his form and he gave an amused laugh in his throat. "Jeez... You look like shit..."
Cade gave the man a dark-eyed and wild glare. "Thanks! I was feeling fucking fantastic before you said that! I'm so glad you're on top of things!" Val didn't say anything to that but frowned a little from Cade's angry tone. From the particular look the other was giving him, it was a mixture of defensiveness and concern. Grimacing, Cade shook his head as if to end that part of the conversation.
"Just get in the fucking car, alright? I had a really bad night," he continued as he began to discreetly lead the other Gamatom away from the doors and away from the library. Away from Ishu.
Valheru's expression cleared as he seemed to accept this explanation for Cade's behavior. "What is it with you and the creepy book place anyways?" he asked as he followed him to the car on the southside of the building.
"It's called a
library, Val. And there's nothing about it, alright? Last time I felt like tearing shit up and the place is FULL of useless crap." Like an old coat, Cade slipped on the mask of how he used to act. How he was
supposed to act around the brethren, the cocky and surly attitude coming naturally to him as he came up beside the vehicle.
"Finding me here again was just a coincidence. I was around here last night and took shelter inside while my wounds healed." Each word came out snotty and like he felt the need to stomp on the whole fucking world. And Cade hated it...hated the way he sounded. After letting down his walls around Ishu, he began to realize, this way of acting, this anger...it wasn't who he really was. And having to wear this sneer and talk this way was incredibly stifling. He couldn't wait for it all to be over and he'd barely begun the "first act" of this play.
Valheru didn't argue with that and walked around to the passenger side while Cade opened the driver's door and slipped inside, the blood and other bodily fluids that Ishu had drenched his clothes in causing the fabric of his shirt and pants to stick to his body wetly. When Valheru got inside the car, his massive bulk made the seat groan as he adjusted himself to give his long, thick muscled legs room on the front mat. Cade tried not to visibly bristle to remember that it was Ishu's seat, but silently vowing to himself that he'd find
some reason to beat on the other man if he ended up breaking it.
As Cade pulled out of the shadow of the building and started back on the road, Valheru cast a glance around the inside of the car, the frown on his face making him look like he'd swallowed something unpleasant. "Nice ride," the large Gamatom said, his deep voice dripping with sarcasm as he looked into the backseat. The duffel bag was back there but zipped up and his rusty red eyes drifted over it without a thought, suddenly smirking as he turned back to Cade. "It's so
tiny. Lookit that back there. Hardly room enough for three people. Pathetic."
"It goes really fast, though," Cade murmured, trying to shrug even as he defended his choice in the vehicle.
"How fucking fast do you need to go?" Valheru scoffed. "Humans don't run like the wind. Especially not the females." He wrapped his knuckles on the window frame, seeming to cause a small tremor to go through the whole thing with just that simple movement. "Piece of useless junk."
Cade clenched his teeth and said nothing. It wasn't really Valheru's fault, afterall, the things he prized in a vehicle were the same things that Cade had once taken pride in - extra room and heavy towing power. But he liked this car. It was just the right size for him and Ishu and he was fond of the way it moved, not bulky and towering over everything, but smooth like a shark speeding through the water. Thinking about her, he let his eyes flicker to the rearview mirror but the library was too far behind them now and her heartbeat no longer sounded in his head, having faded into silence as they'd driven further and further away. He was a lone shark out in open waters on his own now.
The car ride was quiet for the most part but as the mansion became visible on the hill, Cade licked his dry lips and asked, "How mad is he?" They both knew who "he" was.
Val shrugged nonchalantly, the whole seat seeming to protest with a quiet squeak with the movement. "You know how things rarely ever get under his skin, but when they do it seems to make the entire house feel like it's gonna swallow you whole?" Cade nodded. Quin didn't get truly angry very often, but when he did, it wasn't a feeling you could escape from just by going to a different room. "Yeah. He's like that right now. I'd tone down the attitude if I was you.
'I'm just cranky' ain't gonna fly with him today." Cade understood that and it hadn't been his plan to approach Quin that way, but nodded his head silently anyway, his eyes focused on the road once more.
Arriving back at the mansion felt like another weight piled onto his shoulders, especially when he pulled up alongside the other two vehicles - the trucks casting a shadow on the Audi - and he spotted two other Gamatoms lounging outside beside the front doors. One of them was Bast and the other was Dey - other than lighter and longer hair than his older brother, Quin, the two siblings looked nothing alike. Both men were clothed and both of them, who usually could be found hanging out together and goofing off, immediately grew serious as Cade approached, hefting the rogue's dismembered head in his hand. Before Cade put his foot on the first step, Dey turned and entered the front doors, obviously going off to let his brother know that he was back and silently, he walked up the four steps and entered the doors after him.
Cade tried to ignore the tremble of fear that coursed through him, giving the other brethren who lurked about the house a powerful and confident stare that he did not feel - all of them awake and waiting for
him, he noticed - gripping the back of Spiegel's head in his hand and trying to find purpose and strength in holding it. Bast and Valheru had entered behind him and they stood in the main hall near the stairs with the others who lurked in the doorways. 4 of his brethren stood watching him, waiting with penetrating gazes. Men he'd grown up with. Men who, despite everything that'd happened to change him in the last few days, he still felt connected to. Still
wanted to be connected to.
Finally, after only a minute or two of waiting, from the side doorway leading to the room where they'd spoken last, Quin came waltzing into the open room, his hackles raised and threat defining every movement as he stalked near, Dey following on his heels. Surprise registered on the dominant Gamatom's face as he looked Cade up and down with an analytical gaze. Fear gripped Cade by the throat and he instantly started speaking, his tone hesitant and trying to appear humble to dissuade the other man's wrath.
"Quin...I'm sorry I'm late... I know you just spoke to me about this yesterday, but it was an accident. I didn't mean to miss the hunt. I didn't mean to disrespect you--"
He was cut off as the Gamatom leader held up a black colored finger hovering before his face, indicating that he wanted Cade to shut up. It was an uncomfortable moment standing underneath that yellow-green gaze and trying not to flinch when Quin's voice finally broke the silence hanging over everything. "Forget about that," he said, the discerning look in his eyes turning softer, his voice filling with an astonished concern. "What the hell happened to you? What is this?"
Internally, Cade instantly relaxed. Thank God for Ishu and her brilliant plan; Quin was so worried about his current appearance and the head in his hand, it'd instantly dissolved the "house quaking" rage that Valheru had warned him about. Now all he had to do was not fuck up the story he'd been running over and over in his head.
"I was heading back around early afternoon yesterday when I came upon a rogue," he said, his voice getting firmer and more confident as he went on. "He was chasing some women near the library and bank, and I stopped to challenge him." He watched with a hint of satisfaction as Quin bristled to hear of an unknown Gamatom hunting in his territory, and he looked down at the head as Cade brought it up offering it to him. "The son of a bitch was insane, and tried to fucking eat me too. I killed him but was badly wounded in the fight and dragged myself into shelter before passing out. Finally came to this morning as the sun was coming up."
The air in the room had definitely altered dramatically as his voice went on, not only through Quin who now bore a very pleased grin as he looked down upon the severed head in his own obsidian hands, but from the other Gamatoms gathered in the hall as well. From the looks on their faces, he could tell they bought it and it was odd but...Cade felt no guilt whatsoever about lying to them and tricking them this way. Especially not when Quin lifted the head above his head to show it off to the others and a mass, growling cheer rose up from their throats. Even though it was just the 6 men, the sound was amplified by the stone walls and floor of the hall to sound like 30 men gathered together.
With a laugh, Quin tossed the head to Valheru who caught it and held it in one massive hand as if it were a peach, and he said, "Put it out front would you? It'll make a glorious decoration. Another rogue cut down from his rebellion!" Turning to Cade and seeming unaffected by the blood on his clothes, the dominant Gamatom put his arm around Cade's shoulders. "You were lucky to be out and about to catch the bastard on our turf. I'm very glad you were able to destroy him. I would have hated to have to chase the idiot down for daring to hunt here."
Cade waited for Quin to say something about his injuries, to offer up even a small 'I'm glad you're okay', but then he was moving on, talking about having a celebration later tonight to commemorate Cade's kill. There was a ripple of something running through Cade as he was finally dismissed and allowed to go clean himself up, but he didn't know what it was. He kept chiding himself as he undressed in the upstairs bathroom, that he was being ridiculous, looking for something that wasn't there - of COURSE Quin was happy he hadn't been mortally wounded; the guy wanted to throw a party to celebrate it! But he kept coming around in circles, back to that same bothersome feeling that wouldn't leave him alone.
***
The day passed without incident, the men huddling up to sleep the rest of the afternoon away and rising a few hours before sundown. Cade didn't sleep but stayed with them anyways, while Quin surreptitiously kept a close eye on him. It wasn't necessarily like the other Gamatom was watching him, but everytime he thought he might get a chance to sneak away from the others, even when they awoke and began to prepare for the evening, he'd find Quin's eyes on him from across the room. The leader would always offer him a smile at those times, so it seemed innocent enough but still, it kept Cade from thinking about leaving the group anytime soon.
Staying with them was torture though, that weight and pressure building on his shoulders as he kept the act up and tried to fit back into his old role. The mask he wore began to itch painfully and suffocate him - all he wanted to do was go into another room by himself and just let the walls down to BREATHE, just for a second. But there was always someone there, always someone already in the room or someone following him wanting to talk and wrestle or just plain molest him. Outwardly, Cade responded in kind, automatically shifting the tones and expressions of his features to exude pleasure and dominance when it was appropriate while the whole time, inwardly he was choking on it and ready to snap a few necks just to be left alone.
When the men arose in the early evening, a few left the mansion to the heart of the city, coming back well after the sun had gone down. Hollering joyfully, the Gamatoms dragged through the doorway 3 women, bringing the helpless humans into the dining room where the rest of them gathered. All three of the women were older, two of them bigger around the middle with fat hips and the thinnest of the group was the oldest, her hair short and graying. As they were paraded into the vast room which had been cleared of furniture, the walls and floors stained dark red, black and burgundy from past meals, reeking of death, the other Gamatoms came from the other parts of the house, already "un-dressed" for the occasion.
While the scared women stood panting and lightly sobbing, standing huddled together in the middle of the floor, eying the creatures fearfully, Dey stepped forward, nude and with a smile on his face and began to violently tear their clothes off. Cade stood, naked with the others on the edges of the room, Bast's arm around his waist, and swallowing thickly as one of the middle-aged women began to sob and talk brokenly and quickly in Spanish. At first, it seemed like she was pleading for something from Dey, but a sinking feeling filled him to realize...she was praying. Frantic, panicking, her round roll of a belly and globular swinging breasts exposed and she was praying in her own tongue - either because she didn't know English or she was too consumed by fear to bother speaking to her God in a language the Gamatoms could understand.
Cade felt the urge to leave then, to turn away, but that weight on his shoulders, threatening to break his proverbial back with it's strain, kept him rooted in place, unable to take his eyes from what was happening. His body responded against his will to the sound of their hearts beating and their shivering cries. But unlike the others who were snarling and growling eager to get the "party" started, he felt himself on the verge of something else, a thickness filling his throat as he continued to watch.
Quin joined them soon after and Dey stepped back from the now naked and bared women, allowing the leader first "shot" at their prey. The lean and tall, muscular form of the dominant Gamatom glistened with a light moisture in the light from the chandelier overhanging the hall as he stalked in a slow, threatening circle around the cowering humans. The one woman who'd been praying had not shut up yet, her voice running a mile a minute - Cade wondered for an absurd moment if God would be able to understand her; it sounded so garbled like her tongue had lost control in her mouth and couldn't decide if it wanted to talk or cry incoherently.
Without warning, Quin neared the woman and slapped her full force across the face, his voice echoing in the hall amidst the growls of the others as he roared for her to shut up. She took the hit still standing and slowly stopped speaking to just quietly sob, the other two women wincing and drawing away from Quin while still seeming to stand still. The Gamatom didn't waste any time, grabbing one of the others, the other middle-aged one, her features and hair color marking her as a relative of the one who'd been praying. Dragging her a bit apart from the other two and twisting her arm violently, he began to beat her, a grimace of hate contorting his features as his fists slammed into her face and body again and again.
The woman who'd been praying cried out the word "Eloise!" over and over, nearly drowned by the sounds reverberating in the dining hall, and Cade was able to deduce that it was the other woman's name. No one stepped forward to help, the Gamatoms in the hall practically begging to be let loose on these filthy cunts, shouting curses, and roaring encouragement, sharp teeth bared and eyes wild with hate. With Eloise on the ground on her knees where she'd finally lost her footing and fallen, Quin stepped near where Valheru was waiting with what looked like a long metal pipe.
Everything seemed to stretch out for Cade then, his breath caught in his throat and shaking his head slightly, even as it all sped by incredibly fast, the moments slipping through his fingers like rushing water. Quin's face was a mask of rage, eyes almost growing neon and insanely wide as he stepped towards the fallen woman with the pipe in one hand. The breath he'd been holding, left him like he'd been punched in the stomach as Cade watched the pipe slice through the air, Eloise's head moving quickly beneath the blow and crumpling to the ground like a doll.
Whatever spell had been locked over the other woman was released as Quin stepped back a pace or two, and she fell to her knees over the broken woman, screaming her friend's name, her face warped and twisted with pure agony and sorrow as her hands shook over the woman's body. The rest of the Gamatoms were released from their spell as well, and suddenly Cade was alone by the wall, the middle of the room filled with nothing but a crowd of flesh slowly growing red as the blood ran.
Feeling like he was going to pass out from loss of air, Cade slipped from the room, boarding the stairs blindly and rushing away from the sounds of the screams that seemed to chase him through the halls. He tried to tell himself over and over again that there was nothing he could have done for them, but that didn't stop the tears from streaming down his face. But Cade did not cry for them, instead wiping his face on his arm in frustration when he felt the wetness cooling there, hating himself for his weakness.
Finding solace in the library on the other side of the house, he shut himself inside and paced in the middle of the floor while his heart still raced. Even as he felt revulsion and pity overwhelm him about what happened, in the back of his mind like a window into a smaller room, he could still feel the bloodlust getting him excited about the scene. And it just encouraged a new wave of guilt when he remembered the almost visceral way the woman had reacted to her friend...her sister...or whoever Eloise had been, dying right before her eyes.
His thoughts came to a rushing halt when the door slammed open and Quin came stalking into the room. A bit of blood streamed in a scarlet ribbon down his chin and the wild look in his eyes had not yet faded as he glared at Cade accusingly. "What are you doing?" he asked, his voice coming out with a guttural tone as he approached where Cade stood. Despite himself, Cade backed away a few steps before stopping, trying to get his feet to obey him; running scared would do him NO good in this situation.
Not really sure what to say - the images of the women's terror still flashing through his mind and turning his thoughts into static,- he tried not to look at Quin directly and murmured, "I'm just tired...that's all... Don't really feel like eating right now..." At the word eating, in his mind's eye he saw a replay of how the woman's head had caved in like paper when the pipe struck her skull.
"Not hungry?" Quin asked, chewing on the word, seeming to think it over for a moment before coming to a different conclusion. "Maybe you're in the mood for something else, then?" Cade was suddenly acutely aware of how close the leader was to him now and he knew even without seeing how Quin was now looking at him, exactly what the other Gamatom wanted.
"Quin..." he wanted to protest, to say something that would divert his attention to something else, but he could feel the other man's desire focusing on him like a laser, burning a hole through him.
Without warning or provocation, Quin suddenly had his hand on Cade's throat and was shoving him back to slam into the wall, pushing him effortlessly against it and holding him there with his body. Unable to deny the will of the other, Cade went down without a fight, Quin mounting him on the floor and shoving his hardened cock into Cade's body. The room filled with the sound of heated grunts and the soft, repetitive slapping of flesh on flesh as their sweating bodies came together again and again.
Cade knelt with his face shoved into the floor, gritting his teeth to stifle the moans of pleasure that kept getting ripped from his throat, still wanting to fight, still wanting to stop this but
fuck! It felt good... His fingers curled into fists as he bore through it, the pressure and weight on his shoulders rocking as Quin rode him savagely, taking what he wanted without any of the niceties he'd had the night before. As the climax tore through Cade's body, cock spitting thick gobs of cum onto the floor and a cry of ecstasy leaving his throat, Quin let out a crow of triumph and continued to fuck him until his own cum sprayed and coated Cade's insides.
As they lay together on the dirtied floor, cooling from it, Cade said nothing, his body limp and unresponsive to the other's gentle touches. It took every inch of his willpower not to shove the other man off, feeling not only betrayed by the experience but sickened by it as well - something, not even a week ago, he'd relished in and couldn't get enough of. He didn't know if it was the memory of the night before, being with Ishu, still so fresh in his mind, or if it was the circumstances under which he'd been accosted for the sex. Either way, the differences in the two were clearer now and he found himself feeling hollow and drained by it.
As Quin stroked his thigh, his black fingers trailing over Cade's flesh and raising goosebumps under his gentle touch, Cade felt like shoving him away, sickened by it. There was no intimacy or love in the gesture. Nothing but power and dominance and even just a hint of taunting in his victory. Cade had left the party Quin had thrown for him. Not only that, he'd left the group when he was clearly expected to be present. And now the "affection" the dominant Gamatom displayed for him was tainted by the satisfaction of having conquered Cade and forcing him to submit to him.
Even the "party" they'd thrown for him was tainted with it too, testifying Quin's glory and dominance over the city, rather than celebrating what Cade had done for them or even that Cade had lived through a fictional life-threatening attack. And it had nothing to do with the fact that Cade had lied. They simply didn't give a fuck. All that mattered was that Cade obeyed and glorified their leader, feeding his ego when it was demanded of him to do so.
Pretending to fall asleep, Quin eventually left him to rejoin the others and Cade finally got a moment to himself. Already planning to leave and rejoin Ishu, he waited for the dawn when he knew the rest would be asleep.
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