Debts - 10. Chapter 10

- X -

To blond’s utter astonishment, he realized that he couldn’t stop thinking about the strange-eyed slender thief. At first, he ignored it. Then, however (a week or so later), he gave up and started looking for him. It didn’t take Julian too long to find Raven’s apartment – when he wanted to find someone, he would do it, no matter how carefully everything would be hidden. He also realized to his amusement that ‘Raven’ was the thief’s actual name, and not an alias. That was yet another bold addition to Raven’s portrait – not many would risk using their actual name if they did Raven’s job for a living.

He waited for the dark-haired man at the apartment, and when Raven finally came home and saw the blond, he looked stricken. “Oh, hell, no...!” were the first words to escape his mouth. However, Julian was more than aware of the completely opposite reaction that came from Raven’s jeans-clad midsection. Raven wanted to shove him out of the apartment (probably hoping to break his neck while pushing him down the stairs), but his dick was all but singing praises. That was good enough for Julian. He told the thief that he would not hurt him, and he meant it. Not just because Raven was the first willing partner the blond had in years (which was true), but also because for some strange reason, Julian simply didn’t feel like hurting him.

Their second time together was as self-control-free for the blond as their first time, if not more so. The first time, Julian didn’t expect such reaction from his own body; therefore, it caught him completely by surprise. The second time, however, he was very well aware of everything that would happen, so he made sure he kept every single inner restraint of his in place. He was dumbfounded when all of those restraints blew to pieces as soon as the slender body, which was straddling his hips, started to convulse wildly on top of him. He desperately tried to get himself under control, to keep on going, to be the one in charge again... Alas, his efforts granted him maybe nine seconds of a very shaky balance, and then Raven pulled him right along, just as he did almost two weeks ago.

The lack of control made everything so much better – Julian couldn’t believe it. The fact that Raven was into drinking blood was a hell of a perk. After Julian got his wallet from the drawer, he realized that he wanted to experience this again and definitely more than once. He informed the thief that he would see him the next day, ignoring Raven’s ‘I don’t think so!’ and after that night, he started visiting the thief’s apartment four days a week, since he would feed his pain-inflicting side on the weekends.

He was perfectly aware of the fact that it was Raven’s dick alone that was happy to see him every time, and not Raven himself, and it never bothered him. Julian was in it for incredible sex only, and the arrangement suited him just fine. However, somewhere in the end of October, after their yet another control-free encounter, the blond realized that he didn’t feel like leaving. He wanted to stay, he thought dumbfoundedly. He considered that for a few minutes, but then got off the bed and started getting dressed instead. He knew that he could go ahead and stay, but he also knew that if he did, it would make Raven grit his teeth with helpless hatred. The blond was rather surprised at the fact that he didn’t want that; he didn’t want helpless hatred. “What do you want then?” he asked himself while looking for his shirt. He had no idea.

That was when he informed Raven that he would see him the next day, which was Friday. He decided to push his usual Friday activities to Saturdays instead, figuring that it was simply a habit of his to stick to that particular day, and he had no problems with breaking habits. Raven looked trapped and defeated when he heard that, and that look made Julian lock his jaw tighter than usual.

The next evening, he was waiting at the apartment as usual, wondering what was taking Raven so long. It was almost ten in the evening, and the dark-haired man wasn’t back yet. Julian knew that Raven had a job to complete tonight; it had something to do with the museum. He didn’t expect it to last this long, however. He frowned, wondering if Raven was avoiding his apartment for as long as he could, knowing that the blond was waiting for him in there, when the door finally opened, and Julian did his best to ignore the relief he experienced all of a sudden.

“Took you a while,” he said, and then Raven walked into the room, and Julian stopped talking.

The dark-haired thief looked like someone tried to rearrange his entire skeleton. He wasn’t simply beaten up; it was something beyond that. He collapsed onto the couch, and after he told Julian what happened, the blond was furious. He left the apartment that night, and when he got to his house, he made several phone calls, describing the leather wristband to the last detail. “I want them to be found by Tuesday night at the latest,” he finished each conversation with the same phrase before hanging up the phone and leaving the house. Sleep was out of the question -- his fury had to come out one way or another. He took care of that, ignoring sleep completely, and by Saturday morning, he was somewhat calmer.

He stopped by Raven’s apartment later in the morning, and was relieved to see that the strange-eyed man looked (and felt) much better than he did last night. He left the apartment, concentrating on one single task only – find them. On his way to one of his men he contacted last night, he called ‘Flair’ – a small restaurant he knew Raven liked a lot. He was perfectly aware of the fact that they didn’t do home deliveries, and he couldn't care less. He didn’t know why he was doing that, just as he didn’t know what made him buy the cigarettes an hour earlier. He simply felt the need to do it; therefore, he stopped analyzing it, and went with the flow.

He got hold of the two muggers very early on Sunday morning – around three or so. He told his men specifically, to apprehend those assholes only, and do not inflict anything on them. Therefore, both men looked surprised and somewhat pissed off when Julian finally showed up at that warehouse. One of them started saying something along the lines of ‘Who the hell are you and what the hell do you think you are doing...?’ when Julian saw that black leather wristband hugging the man’s right wrist, and his fury was back in full bloom.

He made sure that he didn’t kill either one of them (it was a rather difficult task, but his self-control was very much present right then; the only person who was able to blow it all the way to hell was Raven), since he wanted the dark-haired thief to execute his own revenge. He brought him to that warehouse on Monday morning, and when he offered him a choice of whether to let those two go or to keep them chained up to the old pipes, the blond was absolutely positive that Raven would choose the former. Therefore, he was amazed when Raven gave him a small smile and calmly said, “Finish them.”

“Goddamn,” he thought after he handed Raven his car keys. “We are much more alike than I thought...”

After that day, Julian realized that he wanted a hell of a lot more than what Raven was giving him. It wasn’t just about sex anymore; it grew into something much, much bigger. For him, that is. He was sure that for Raven, it was nothing but every-day-fuck, and it was driving him crazy. Therefore, he became mute last night when Raven said to him, “We’ll fuck, you’ll leave, I’ll go to sleep... The usual.” The blond couldn’t believe the bitterness in Raven’s voice when he said, ‘You’ll leave.’

“He doesn’t want me to leave...?” Julian thought in disbelief. He almost shook his head, but composed himself at the last second.

...“What is it with you tonight?” Raven muttered into his mouth several hours later, after their conversation in that coffee shop. Julian was surprised yet again (with himself this time) that he told Raven about something in his past he didn’t like to think about. However, it somehow felt right, so he told him.

“What?” the blond muttered back.

“You are never like this...” was Raven’s reply, and Julian didn’t say anything to that.

Then, several hours later, after Raven’s desperate ‘Oh, God, Julian, don’t stop... Please, don’t stop... Julian, please...’ the blond realized that he was in deeper than he thought, no pun intended. He told Raven that he was not going anywhere right then, and the smaller man grabbed his hair and pulled his head up, staring at him for almost a full minute without blinking.

“You mean, you will be spending the night...?” he asked finally, and Julian gave him his usual smile.

“Yes,” he said in a lazy drawl even though he wasn’t sure whether he liked that quiet tightness in Raven’s voice, since he didn’t know what it meant.

Raven stared at him silently for another painfully long minute without shifting his gaze.

“I hope you don’t snore,” he muttered finally, and the blond couldn’t believe the relief that flooded him. The thought that he was somehow betraying Vivienne had never even crossed his mind. It wasn’t true, and he knew that.

When he walked into the apartment tonight and saw that damn cat, fear and fury made his head ache. Then, after Raven told him about black streams, and after Julian realized that there was a very good chance for Raven to die earlier today, he almost started to shake. This damn poison turned his fear into panic – he was not ready to lose this man.

He brought the car to a screeching halt when he finally got to his house. Then he pulled the unconscious man out of the back seat, throwing his slender frame over his shoulder just as he did half an hour earlier, and walked into the house without bothering with the locks – he made one of the magic streams to unlock the door for him instead, since he had no desire to look for the house key right now. The blond knew most of the poisons, and he made sure he had enough antidotes for the especially nasty ones – one could be never sure when somebody might try poisoning them. With Julian’s reputation and fame, it was more than possible; therefore, he decided to play it safe.

He dropped Raven’s limp body onto the big leather couch in the living room, and went into the master bathroom where he kept his drugs, antidotes, and some other things. He found the right antidote, thought for a second, and grabbed two capsules and a syringe. He decided to pump the dark-haired man with a double dosage, knowing that if he gave him too much, the worst thing that would happen to Raven, would be a hell of a headache tomorrow morning, and nothing more. He was sure that the damn poison made its way all over Raven’s system by now, so the double dosage was definitely the right choice.

It took him an excruciatingly long minute to find a vein in the slender arm finally, and then he carefully emptied the syringe into it, hoping that he wasn’t too late. After he finished with the syringe, he sat into one of the leather chairs next to the couch, and folded his arms in his chest. The only thing he could do now was to wait. Then, a minute or so later, he got up and grabbed his car keys. He completely forgot about the damn mirror.

He went outside, unlocked the car, and took the mirror from the car seat, never noticing that he had a small spot of Raven’s blood on one of his fingers, and never noticing that spot rubbing onto the mirror. He also never noticed a very soft, almost nonexistent glow that came from the mirror for a fraction of a second once the blood got onto its surface.

Julian went back into the house, put the mirror on one of the shelves in the living room, and dropped himself into the same chair as before, folding his arms in his chest yet again. Now he would wait. He fell asleep without even realizing it, a half an hour later, and the last thought he had before sliding into the velvety blackness was, “I need to figure out who hired him...”

****

He woke up because of the feeling that he was being watched rather intently. He opened his eyes, and almost laughed with relief. Raven seemed to be just fine; he was sitting on the couch, hugging his knees, and staring at the blond very thoughtfully.

“Headache?” Julian asked in his usual manner.

“No,” Raven shook his head slightly. “Thirsty, that’s all.”

“Damn,” Julian thought while getting off the chair. He knew that the absence of headache meant the double dosage was indeed a very right choice, and that a normal dosage would do nothing. He returned into the living room and handed Raven a bottle of water.

“Huh,” Raven said when he took it from his hands.

“What?” the blond asked with mild interest.

“What time is it?” Raven asked instead of answering the question.

“Eight in the morning,” Julian said after looking at his watch.

“I will need to turn in the mirror at eleven,” Raven nodded and set the bottle on the floor next to the couch. “Speaking of the mirror...” he threw a suddenly tense look at Julian.

“Over there,” the blond said indifferently and nodded at the shelf, noting Raven’s immediately relaxing shoulders.

“What did you do to the cat?” Raven looked at him without blinking.

“Nothing,” Julian shrugged. “Left the spell up for the owner to find it... If she knows how to take off someone else’s spell, then she would get her familiar back, and if not...” he shrugged again.

“Damn,” Raven muttered. “I bloody hate cats...!”

“Why?” the blond sounded genuinely interested, and Raven sighed.

“When I was a kid...” he started saying slowly. “I lived with my Aunt... My parents were killed in a train wreck,” he briefly glanced at Julian. “Anyway, my Aunt had this cat...” he grimaced. “His name was Rufus. He was an evil son of a bitch; I hated that bastard. He would hiss at anyone but my Aunt, and he hated me pretty much as I hated him... It was mutual,” he nodded. “I came to live with my Aunt when I was five, and apparently, the damn cat felt like I was intruding on his territory...” he sighed. “That very first evening when I went into the bathroom to wash my hands before dinner, the damn thing was hiding behind the corner... He bit my toe so hard that I swear to God, I thought it would fall off...”

He looked around with a small frown after realizing that he still didn’t have his shirt on.

“Where are my smokes?” he asked, and Julian threw a pack of cigarettes at him. “Anyway,” Raven continued after he lit one. “He bit my toe, scared the shit out of me, plus it hurt like hell too. So I kicked the damn thing as hard as I could... Oh, man,” he laughed softly. “That was one hell of a ‘welcome-to-your-new-home’ I got from my Aunt after that... She didn’t give a damn that he bit me, but she looked like she wanted to kill me right there, in that bathroom...” he sighed. “After that, the damn cat would always do something to me. For a while, I was afraid that he would get into my room while I was asleep and rip my throat out...”

He fell silent for several minutes, thoughtfully puffing on his cigarette.

“For a couple of years,” he continued finally. “It wasn’t too bad... By ‘not too bad,’ I mean that the cat would bite and scratch the hell out of me, and if I were lucky, I was able to kick him so hard, he would fly across the room... Of course, I could only do it when my Aunt wasn’t around,” he shrugged. “The damn cat figured it out rather soon though... Every time my Aunt would leave the house, that bastard would hide somewhere until she came back. He would never harass me when it was just him and me in the house.”

He smoked in silence for a minute or two.

“It started to get worse when I turned nine,” he finally said with a small sigh. “I don’t know what it was, but all of a sudden, the bloody cat would do anything he could think of to be able to kill me...” He shrugged and looked around for an ashtray. Julian pushed one towards him, sliding it across the coffee table. Raven stabbed his cigarette in there and stretched on the couch.

“One night I woke up, and I seriously thought I was gonna crap my pants...” he continued. “My room had that little window up on top of the main one; it was really small, and the cat was pretty big, so I figured that it wouldn’t be able to get through. So that night, I opened that window, because it was mid-July, and it was beyond hot... Then around two or so in the morning, I woke up because of some weird noise...” he glanced at the thoughtful blond and grinned. “I was always a light sleeper, which is a very good thing, believe me... Anyway, I woke up, and when I looked at that window, I thought I was gonna die from a heart attack or a very major case of crapped pants. The goddamn cat was half-way through the window, with his paws sticking out and every single one of his claws was ready to go... The creepiest thing, though, was the fact that he was completely silent... The noise that I heard came from a window frame; it was really old and it creaked like no other. Then he sees me, realizes that I am awake, and he just freezes there, staring at me. I have no idea how I managed to keep my mouth shut... If I started screaming bloody murder, my Aunt would beat all shit out of me again for waking her up in the middle of the night. She would never believe me about the cat, of course, so she would add some more for lying...”

He shook his head and sat up, leaning on the back of the couch.

“Anyway, we stared at each other for God knows how long, and the whole time, the goddamn cat didn’t blink even once. Then he kinda jerked forward, and I am thinking, holy hell, that bastard is going to try and get in all the way...! So I grab the first thing that I could reach, and throw it at that window... Turned out to be my pillow, which was also a good thing, ‘cause if I broke that window, I would be probably wishing for death... Well, the pillow smacked him square on the head, and apparently, I threw it hard enough to knock him back somewhat because he drew his paws away, and when he did, I just jumped up and slammed the window shut. I hoped to get him with the glass, but the bastard was too quick... Ever since then, I kept everything sealed tight; I wouldn’t crack the window even slightly open. That was one very long and hot summer...” he nodded thoughtfully.

“Why did your Aunt treat you that way?” Julian asked with a small, thoughtful frown.

“Oh,” Raven sighed. “She was my mom’s older sister... She was five years older. When my mom was eighteen, and my Aunt was twenty-three, they both managed to fall for the same guy...”

“Let me guess,” the blond hemmed in his usual purring manner. “That guy turned out to be your father rather soon?”

“Not that soon,” Raven said with a half-nod. “In three years; but yeah... My Aunt never forgave my mom...”

“Why?” Julian lit a cigarette for himself. “Seems rather unreasonable.”

“Because he was with my Aunt first,” Raven said with a small smile. “Then my mother saw him and decided that she wanted him...” he shrugged. “She was a rather driven character; if she wanted something... someone, whatever... She would get it. So he dumped my Aunt, and four months later, he and my mother announced that they were mates.”

“I see,” the blond said with the same thoughtful look.

“They left for a trip when I was five,” Raven stretched on the couch again. “I stayed with my Grandmother. I liked her,” he nodded. “She was a good Grandma... Would always bake cookies, never yelled at me or anything... Well, after she found out about the train wreck, she just stood there for a couple of minutes, and then she went down on the floor, just like that... Never got up,” he nodded. “After she was gone, my Aunt was my only living relative... The worst thing for her, besides the entire story, was the fact that I look like both – my father and my mother. Even my eyes...” he grinned again. “My mom had blue eyes, and my dad had brown... So, I guess I was like this constant little reminder to her... Every day...”

“Whatever happened to the cat?” Julian crossed his legs.

“Oh,” Raven sighed. “The worst thing happened when I was twelve. I don’t even remember what the hell I did back then, but it was something that got my Aunt so pissed that I seriously believed she would kill me... I think she really wanted to,” he added. “Anyway, she decided not to kill me, but to...” He paused. “...‘punish’ me instead...” He threw a quick look at the interested blond. “See, in her book, ‘punish’ was a euphemism for ‘hurt-you-in-the-most-humiliating-manner’... She would come up with some interesting stuff,” he nodded thoughtfully. “Anyway, that particular day, she went out and got shitload of really small, sharp rocks, the kind they use for gravel, you know? Then she came back home and added some other shit in there, like crushed glass, and some broken plastic. She mixed it all nice and proper, poured it onto the ground next to the shed, and dragged me over there...”

“Let me guess...” Julian hemmed once more. “She wanted you to sort all of that out?”

“What’s painful about that?” Raven gave him a crooked smile. “No, that’s not what she wanted. She made me take my pants off, and then she pushed me down on my knees, right in the middle of that mess... Yeah, it hurt,” he nodded. “Once again, it was summer that one time, so it was quite hot. Then she ties this rope around my arms and neck, throws it across the shed’s door in such fashion that the door would only stay open if I stayed in place, and if I tried moving, it would close, and since the rope was around my neck...” He nodded. “I made sure I didn’t move. Then she left until... Ohh...” he frowned thoughtfully. “Until much later... Anyway, there I am, on my knees, which were bleeding like no other soon enough, the sun is getting higher, I am hot as hell, my arms feel like they are about to fall off, ‘cause they were above my head the whole time... Then it gets even better. The fucking cat realized that I could do absolutely nothing to him, so he decided to take full advantage of that.”

He paused and lit another cigarette, Julian watching him silently.

“He jumped me from behind,” Raven continued after a minute or so. “I had my shirt on, but it was thin, and it didn’t do shit when it came to protecting my back... He shredded that shirt in less than five minutes... Man, talk about pain...” he hemmed. “So there I am, screaming my head off, with that bastard trying to rip my spine apart, blood all over, sun is blazing by that point, and I can’t even move because of the fucking rope... I still don’t know what happened,” he dragged on the cigarette. “Maybe my Aunt came back or maybe someone heard me screaming and went into our backyard to see what the hell was going on...” He shrugged. “I don’t know. All I know is that at some point, I passed out. I am not sure if it was because of the pain, the sun, blood loss, or all of the above. Apparently, when I passed out, I fell, and the damn rope nearly choked me... As I said, I have no idea how I ended up back in the house... My Aunt never said anything; she didn’t even mention it. The only reason I know about the rope is that I had a hell of a mark on my neck. It stayed there for almost two days.”

“You were twelve?” Julian seemed thoughtful again.

“Yeah,” Raven nodded. “Well, after that happened, I made a vow to kill that goddamn cat. I didn’t care if I would die while doing it, but I promised that I would kill that bastard...”

“Did you?” now the blond looked even more interested.

“I did,” Raven nodded with a small smile. “A couple of months later. I mixed some sleeping pills in his food an hour or so before my Aunt left the house. He ate some, and when she left, he was out, nice and proper. I shoved him in the bag and took him to the lake...”

“You drowned him?” Julian seemed somewhat disappointed.

“Eventually, yes,” Raven said. “But at first, I smashed his fucking head with a rock for probably an hour... Then I broke his neck for good measure... And only then, I drowned him. Put shitload of heavy rocks in that bag, tied it, and sank it in the middle of the lake. Nobody ever found it.” He smiled again, looking at the blond without blinking.

“What?” Julian asked in intrigued manner.

“When I was smashing his head with that rock...” Raven said in a low voice. “...that was when I came for the very first time... It was exhilarating...”

Salamander’s mouth twitched in the same familiar small, slow smile, except now, it was somewhat darker and more satisfied, as if he was saying, “I know exactly what you felt.”