Read Beneath the Neon Moon Online

Authors: Theda Black

Tags: #paranormal erotica, #GLBT, #paranormal, #Fiction, #werewolf fiction, #gay paranormal, #werewolves, #American Horror Fiction, #Horror, #full moon, #paranormal gay, #Gay/Lesbian, #supernatural, #shape shifters, #contemporary fiction, #gay, #gay fiction, #adult, #gay love, #kidnapped, #chained, #Contemporary, #gay horror, #Erotic, #gay psychological thriller, #pyschological thriller, #gay werewolves

Beneath the Neon Moon (6 page)

BOOK: Beneath the Neon Moon
3.06Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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Chapter 6

 

 

 

H
E
WOKE HIMSELF early the next morning talking in his sleep. Mal stared down at him in the gray shadows of the cellar. He couldn't read Mal's expression.

"What?" he asked, blinking. "Did I do something?"

"You were dreaming. Pulled on the chain."

Zach winced. "Sorry. Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Didn't sound like a good dream, whatever it was," Mal said, ignoring the question. "Said something about your dad. Called out for him." Mal looked into his eyes. "So where is your dad?"

"He died years ago."

Mal nodded, looking away. "Yeah. That's what I figured." He paused. "I wasn't sleeping anyway."

"What's up?"

Mal cocked his head. "Worried about my sleeping habits?" His pupils were too large, a thin edge of hazel and gold surrounding them, hint of something wild in them. Instinct prickled over Zach skin, waking him fully. Mal shrugged. "I don't know. Just wasn't. I don't think I can. My arms and legs keep cramping up. I feel weird. I was … listening." He pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Did you know there's a rat nesting by the wall? She smells like—she's
warm
and her heart beats so fast. She's burrowed underneath some junk under a rusty grill, I think. Got it lined with old newspaper. It smells like leaves in the early winter, decomposing on the ground. Only drier and not as nice … dead a long time. She has seven pups. You hear the squeaking?"

Zach pushed Mal away from him and sat up. He tried to make himself sound normal, though all kinds of alarms were going off inside him. "I don't hear anything."

Mal sat up slowly beside him. "Yeah, I bet. I guess you didn't hear Aaron and Kane moving around upstairs, either. Something's going on. Their scent's changing. Like mine. You didn't hear them, right?"

Zach's pulse quickened. "Guess I was asleep." He tried to sound off-handed, a little irritated. He rubbed his eyes. "Grab the water, would you? I need a drink."

Mal ignored him, leaning closer. "I can tell when someone's nervous now, Zach. I hear your heart beating, your respirations. You know what I think? I think they told you something."

"Yeah? Why wouldn't I tell you that, Mal?"

"You tell me." Mal shrugged. "Maybe you don't want me to know what's happening."

Zach wouldn't look at him. "Paranoid much?"

"Which leaves a big question for you. You're not changing. You're hooked to someone who is. Why? And why would you need to hide that from me?"

Zach looked up at the dim ceiling above and sighed. "What do you want from me, you want me to make something up?"

Mal's lip curled. "Yeah. Didn't think you'd tell me." When he spoke again, his voice was low and deep. "So what should I do to get you to tell me, Zach?"

"Mal. Stop," Zach whispered.

Mal slid closer, leaning on one arm and staring into his eyes. He smiled, his lips curling wide and thin.

"What is it, what's happening to you?" Zach breathed.

Mal brought his face closer, a hair's breadth away. At this angle the slant of his eyes was noticeable and his gaze cold, calculating. "Don't insult me by acting as if you don't know. You said you wanted to help me."

"I do."

Mal's upper lip lifted. "You
know
."

 Zach swallowed, looking back at him squarely. "You think I do, anyway. So what are you going to do about it?" His voice was soft, barely there.

Something uncertain flashed over Mal's features, cracking the hard mask he wore. His shoulders slumped. After a few minutes he spoke again, turning his head to look off into a dark corner. "Scents are so
strong
now. I react to them before I think. They're like mainlining a drug." He shifted restlessly. "I can barely stay still anymore. Pain's almost a relief from it." Mal gestured at his ankle. "I know the smell of my own blood. Recognize it like I've always known what it smells like. Do you know what yours smells like, Zach?" Mal turned again and leaned into Zach, bumped his face to his, rubbed against stubble. "I do. Even though you haven't bled, I'd know it anywhere. I've never realized how our blood smells so distinctive … blood skin, sweat, piss." The tip of Mal's tongue traced delicately over Zach's cheek. "Tears." He moved until his lips brushed Zach's ear. "I thought you weren't afraid of me."

Zach shivered and took a long, slow breath, tried to disguise it as a yawn. "I'm not. I just woke up. I don't know what the hell's going on with you."

"Why do you think you're here with me? Chained in the dark?" He nuzzled Zach's ear. His hair tickled Zach's face.

"You keep acting like I know something. I don't."

"I don't believe you." Mal took Zach's earlobe between his teeth and bit down hard, then harder.

Zach stiffened before he could stop himself, feeling Mal smile against his cheek as he kept the pressure up.

"Fucker. Cut it out. This isn't a game. It's our lives." Zach threw all the annoyance he could into his voice, then wrapped a hand around Mal's neck and pushed him quick and hard, meaning it. Mal let go and fell back. Zach breathed easier, trying not to let it show. He'd wondered for a minute if he'd get his earlobe spit back at him for his trouble.

Mal sat up and blinked as if surfacing from a dream, or a nightmare. His expression looked familiar again for the first time this morning, like the Mal Zach had met—just yesterday? Jesus.

"I just want to make this all go away. For both of us." Zach said, soft and urgent. "I want to walk out of here with you. See your face in the daylight. Maybe you could show me where you live. What do you think?"

"I think …" Mal started. He still looked disoriented, like he'd been pulled back somewhere he hadn't realized he'd left. He sighed. "I think whatever else is going on, you're telling the truth now." He nodded slowly. "Yeah, of course I'd bring you to the apartment. Show you around. It's the size of a postage stamp, though. Take about thirty seconds." He hesitated, then took a deep breath, the words coming out in a rush. "I don't want to sleep anymore because I've been dreaming, okay, and I don't want to see that shit anymore. I keep seeing blood. Me. Hurting them." Mal forced himself to look at Zach, his eyes apologetic. "Even—even you. But I don't want to hurt you, you know that."

Zach's heart was pounding. "That's a hell of a thing to tell me, Mal."

Mal didn't look away. "You already knew."

A good five seconds passed. "Yeah, okay. I don't want you to hurt me, either."

"I won't. I swear I won't."

"Good. Now can I get that drink now?"

Mal reached for the water pitcher and handed it over. There wasn't much left. Zach took a couple of swallows and handed it back, waiting for Mal to settle beside him again.

He put a hand on Mal's arm. "Just now, just before, it was like talking to someone else. A stranger. You weren't even in the room. Where'd you go, Mal?" Zach whispered.

"I don't know. Something's trying to … to take me over, somehow. Sounds crazy, but that's what it feels like. I don't think the lack of sleep is helping me fight it off, either. I'm sorry. I'm trying to stop it. Maybe I am crazy."

Zach nodded, moved his hand to Mal's thigh and rubbed it. "Okay, okay. You're not crazy. So, we were talking about what we'll do when we get out of this hole. We could go to your place, right. We could talk. Maybe you could tell me what classes you're taking, maybe even let me meet some of your friends, yeah? So then I'd have a picture of you in my head, what your day's like, something new to remember so I won't have to think about this place anymore." Zach gripped Mal's arms. "Or about how you're trying not to hurt me. Being scared you will. Mal, I know you think I've been lying, but I wouldn't ever hurt you, you know that, right? So please … try, okay? Just keep it under control. We'll find out what's going on, we'll get out. I promise we'll get out. Don't give up."

Mal swallowed, nodding, staring at Zach as if he were his only hope. He'd looked so menacing earlier, looming, all angry fire and cold menace, a stranger, and now he was earnest and trusting, eyes wide and pleading. Zach wondered how he did that, a big guy like Mal.

"C'mere," he said, and Mal lay down beside him, face to face, body touching Zach's chest to legs to feet. "So would it help you not dream if we, uh …"

"What?"

"Ah, well—"

"Jack each other off again?"

Zach looked startled, then grinned. "That wasn't what I had in mind, exactly—"

"Hold each other?"

"
Hold each other
. How romantic," Zach mimicked scornfully.

Mal went on, unperturbed. "Yeah. Or you can call it hugging, I guess. Clutching, even. Like a security thing, clutching a stuffed animal."

"Shut up."

"Or a blankee."

"Fuck. You're ridiculous."

Mal burrowed his face under Zach's jaw. "No I'm not." His voice was muffled. "Maybe a little."

Zach sighed. He cleared his throat. "Cuddle."

"What?" Mal looked up.

"The word I was gonna use." Zach flushed.

Mal propped himself on an elbow, rose up and looked at him, eyes narrowed and slanting. "So in the Book of Zach, 'cuddle' is supposed to be less pussy than 'holding each other'?"

"God. Why did I say it."

"I knew that's what you meant anyway." Mal smiled, doing his damnedest to cover up every last trace of the fear and confusion that had shown so plainly on his face minutes before. 

He played a good game, and this time, at least, Zach went with it gratefully. "You did not."

"You're a cuddler. I get it. You don't have to be afraid of your sensitive side, not with me." Mal shook his head, a little tut-tut gesture, and Zach flushed harder, knowing he was being played but unable to help it anyway.

Mal dropped his head back into the curve of Zach's neck and shoulder, settling in and sighing a hot, noisy breath against his skin.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 7

 

 

 

T
HE
DOOR OPENED with a creak, sunlight falling down the stairway. Mal and Zach jerked awake, Mal with a curse or ten when Zach forgot himself and scrambled away so that the chain pulled tight between them. He quickly moved closer again.

"Bathroom break, guys. We'll take you both up this time, so sit down and don't move while we get the chains off. When we tell you, move straight up the stairs. We're going to bring your asses down real fast if you make any moves at all that we're not expecting, because we're the cautious types and that's the price you pay for togetherness." Kane's arms were crossed over his chest. His face was impassive, and he made eye contact with Zach and Mal individually. He stood back and watched. Aaron tied their hands together in front of them, then unlocked their cuffs, giving Mal the loose connecting chain to hold. Kane grabbed the water jug, and they all climbed the steps.

Upstairs, Mal and Zach were directed once again to the bright white bathroom. Aaron sent Zach in first. It was an awkward, miserable business taking care of bodily functions with his hands tied and an audience waiting outside the door, but he managed. He tried to wash up a little, managing enough that he felt better for it, though his T-shirt was soaked by the time he was done. Mal went next and came out scowling, clearly and considerably pissed off at the lack of basic freedom to maneuver around in the bathroom. 

They went to the kitchen and ate sandwiches, both of them hungry enough by now to eat all they were given. Afterward they went back downstairs, Kane leading, then Mal, then Zach with Aaron following.

Before they reached the bottom, Mal threw himself forward on top of Kane, both of them falling to the left and crashing through the old wooden railing. Kane gave a winded bellow as Mal's bound fists pounded into the back of his head, then grunted in pain as elbows slammed into the base of his neck.

Zach stopped suddenly and braced himself. Aaron bumped into him, carrying the water. It sloshed down Zach's back. Zach thrust an elbow sharply back, punching hard into Aaron's stomach, the pitcher falling, rolling off the side of the stairs. Aaron grabbed his stomach, breath leaving him in a whoosh. He gasped in, then again, trying to catch his breath, and punched a brutal blow to Zach's kidneys. Zach fell forward, tumbling down the steps, Aaron coming up fast behind him. At the foot of the stairs he grabbed the back of Zach's T-shirt, bunching it and pulling him up to sit.

Mal beat into Kane's back, neck and head with his elbows, but he had no way to hold Kane down other than by his weight. Kane bucked beneath him and rolled to one side, then reversed himself, throwing his body on top of Mal's, pinning him. 

 "Good try," Kane snarled in Mal's face, nose dripping blood, "but guess what, you fucking lose." He grabbed a handful of Mal's dark hair at the crown and banged his head up and down in the dirt. Mal's eyes squeezed shut, and he gasped at each impact. "Next time it's back to going up separately. You'll get to worry all over again about the six ways to Sunday we're fucking your buddy upstairs. How do you like that?"

"Quit screwing with him, Kane—" Aaron started.

Mal lifted his head fast and headbutted Kane. They all heard the crunch as Kane's nose broke. Kane howled.

Aaron laughed.

Kane looked furiously around at Aaron, slinging blood, then turned back to Mal. He grabbed the chain lying loose by his side and grabbed it, started to pull it. He stopped, watching Mal thoughtfully. A slow smile settled over his slick red mouth. Kane settled himself deliberately against Mal's body, blood gushing from his nose and down his face, some of it catching in the strands of his long hair.

Mal fixated on the blood. His mouth opened as if in a dream. He licked his lips and swallowed.

"Fucker." Kane grinned. "Taste it. Tastes good, doesn't it?" He shook his head, blood rolling, dripping onto Mal's lips and into his mouth. Mal licked his lips and swallowed convulsively. He squirmed tied arms up between his and Kane's body, then gripped Kane's throat by both hands and pulled him closer. His eyes closed. He opened his mouth, seeking.

BOOK: Beneath the Neon Moon
3.06Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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