Debts - 21. Chapter 21

- XXI -

Desmond stood by the back of the couch, watching Salamander explaining Gabriel what he wanted him to do. Desmond didn’t really care; all he knew was that it had something to do with magic streams. Finally, Gabriel nodded rather stiffly, and then both of them half-closed their eyes in the eerily identical manner. Desmond watched them with mild interest, noting the fact that they both stood completely still. Suddenly, Raven stirred on the couch, and said without opening his eyes:

“I am fine... You can stop now; I am fine...”

Both men opened their eyes and stared at him. Raven slowly peeled his eyes open as well and gave them a weak smile.

“I have no idea what the hell it was...” he muttered. “Probably the aftermath... I am fine now though...”

“Raven...” Gabriel started saying slowly when the blond interrupted him.

“That’s not Raven,” he said quietly without looking away from the dark-haired man.

Desmond blinked at that, as did Gabriel. Raven slowly turned his head to look at the blond. He studied him seriously for about a minute, and then his mouth stretched in a very slow smile.

“I am impressed,” he nodded. “Figured it out right away... You do know him better than I thought!”

“Magda...” Julian said in the same quiet voice.

“You know my name!” The dark-haired man nodded once again. “Now I am downright flattered...!”

“I thought you couldn't control magic...” the blond’s eyes were very dark right now. The man on the couch smiled somewhat smugly.

“Well,” he shrugged. “What can I say... I am a fast learner...!”

“She can’t,” Gabriel interrupted him and frowned. “It’s a ‘she,’ right?” he looked at the blond, who slowly nodded. “She can’t,” Gabriel repeated. “She is channeling; that’s not magic... You don’t have to be able to do anything in order to channel.”

Raven’s eyes immediately narrowed.

“Well, aren’t you the smart one...” he muttered with annoyance. “Calling my bluff...!”

He looked at Rayhe more intently, then let out a low ‘Hmmm...’ and slowly shifted his gaze towards Desmond. His eyes immediately became even narrower than before.

“You...!” he hissed with dark hatred. “You are the one who ruined my plan! Goddammit! I am finally able to attune the goddamn mirror; I am maybe an hour away from the absolute completion... An hour at the most,” he added with a furious nod. “I am thinking all right, almost time to celebrate, and what happens...? Both of my guys are knocked out cold by some asshole with long black hair and ridiculously green eyes...! Do you have any idea how frustrated I was on Sunday?”

Desmond let out a very small smile.

“I aim to please,” he muttered, and Raven (Magda) snorted impatiently.

“Asshole,” the man repeated darkly. “Anyway,” he looked at Julian again. “I am too close to my goal now, and I am not going to stop. Now, before you start calling your goons,” he tilted his head to the right just a bit. “Let me warn you that the minute I suspect that something is off, this body right here...” he tapped his own chest with his finger. “Is going to expire,” he nodded slightly. “I am not bluffing this time,” he shot a dark look at Gabriel. “Yes, usually you would have to be able to control the streams to do that, but not in my case...” He shrugged. “See, Raven here...” he lightly stroked his own cheek. “Shares my blood now... A lot of it,” he nodded again. “I did it because of the ritual and attuning, but even though that didn’t go as I planned...” He shot another hateful look at Desmond. “It has some really awesome perks. Like, channeling, for example... Makes it a hell of a lot easier... Also,” here he smiled. “Killing from the distance becomes merely a child’s game...! Believe me when I say it, I’ll kill him if something seems even remotely off, okay? Therefore, here is the deal,” he nodded again.

Desmond glanced at Julian; the blond stared at the dark-haired man on the couch without blinking.

“I want that goddamn rock,” the man was saying meanwhile. “You can have your thief back, I don’t care anymore; you can fuck his brains out for as long as you both shall live, have fun! But I want the rock, and I want it in two days, counting today – that’s how long I am willing to give you,” he nodded yet again. “If I don’t have the damn thing by then, you can kiss your little mate goodbye... Literally,” he added in a few seconds. “I am going to log off now, in a manner of speaking, because even though channeling is not as difficult as it would usually be, it is still rather draining. Don’t worry,” he waved his hand somewhat lazily. “You’ll get your thief back after I am gone... And no, I am not going to spy on you two while you screwing each other’s brains out...” he yawned. “I am not much into male-on-male action...”

“You are lying,” Desmond said quietly, and the yawn immediately stopped. “You are lying,” Desmond repeated after the dark-haired man stared at him with disbelieving hatred. He frowned slightly. “About everything...” he nodded slowly. “You are not going to leave him alone even after you get the rock...”

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out,” the man hissed without even a shadow of a smirk this time. “Two days!” he shot a quick glance at Julian. “Bye-bye now!”

Suddenly, Raven’s eyes rolled back, and he collapsed onto the couch cushions, unconscious once again.

“Well, shit,” Desmond said very thoughtfully.

****

“He is a thief?” Gabriel asked after several very long minutes of heavy silence.

“Yes,” the blond replied shortly.

“I knew that he was some sort of a criminal,” Gabriel muttered, looking at Desmond. “Didn’t I tell you that?”

“Shut up, Rayhe,” Desmond said automatically, thinking about something.

Julian pulled a phone out of his pocket and impatiently flipped it open. He punched in the number and waited for an answer, tapping some bizarre rhythm on Raven’s knee with his fingers.

“Anthony!” he said sharply after a minute. “I need you to get into my office, the one on the Main Street... Yes, that one,” he nodded mechanically. “I will make sure they will let you in,” he nodded again after a few seconds. “I need you to get a dark-green rock from the safe in there, get on the plane, and fly to the address I will give you in a minute... Yes, there is a combination on the lock. Do you have a pen? All right, the combination is...”

Sudden ringing of the phone made Desmond blink. He pulled it out of his pocket, pressed it against his ear, and walked into the kitchen.

“Hello...” he muttered and opened the cupboard, reaching for the mugs. Suddenly, he froze in his place, forgetting about the mugs. “No!” he said sharply, and Gabriel, who followed him, gave him a questioning look. “No!” Desmond repeated with more desperation this time. “Kid, do not come over...! I am not joking!”

Gabriel closed his eyes.

“Kid, I am dead-serious!” Desmond continued. “Yeah, yeah, that’s it!” he said quickly. “Wild, unrestricted sex, right now, and you are interrupting, okay? Sam, seriously, do not come over! Umm, I’ll call you, how’s that...? Yeah, well...” he hemmed. “You don’t know Rayhe’s stamina... But seriously, kid... Okay, thanks...!”

He slowly shut his phone and looked at Gabriel.

“Please tell me, he is not coming over,” Gabriel said quietly and opened his eyes.

“I hope he doesn’t,” Desmond muttered and rubbed his temples. “Goddammit...”

“...his name is Anthony Dane,” Julian was saying in the living room. “Let him in and do not disturb him, understood?”

Desmond sighed and grabbed two mugs from the shelf.

“So much for him getting the hell out,” he muttered while filling those mugs with coffee. “Hold on...” he said slowly and handed one mug to Gabriel. “If whoever was channeling is unable to use magic, then how do you explain the fact that he is unconscious...? Plus, Salamander was certain that magic was involved...”

“Oh,” Gabriel sighed. “That’s because it seemed very similar... To me as well,” he nodded and drank some coffee. “If they share the same blood, it is much easier to inflict something on him and make it look like magic... Not much different from channeling,” he nodded. “Plus, if they are attuned to the same object, as it seems they are, then it becomes even easier.”

Desmond became thoughtful again, noting the fact that the blond wasn’t talking on the phone anymore.

“What are you thinking about...?” Gabriel started asking when suddenly, there was someone’s rather loud voice:

“Desmond...? Gabriel!”

Both men stared at each other for a few seconds with identically huge eyes. Then they said, “Fuck!” at the same time, and rushed into the living room. They both came to a screeching halt when they saw a slim young man standing by the couch. The man had dirty-blond hair, fair, slightly freckled skin, and dark-blue eyes. Those eyes were almost perfectly round right now, and they stared at the blond without blinking, reflecting disbelief, terror, and pure hatred.

“Hello, Samuel,” Julian said in his quiet, purring manner without getting up. He was kneeling by the couch again. “I was wondering what happened to you...” He cocked his head slightly to the left. “Now I see... You look well,” he nodded slightly without even a shadow of a smile.

The young man kept staring at him without saying anything or even moving.

“Sam...” Gabriel called quietly, and the man blinked and slowly turned his head to look at him.

“I told you not to come over, kid...” Desmond said desperately.

Sam kept staring at both of them without saying a single word.

“I am not here for either one of you,” Julian said, and Sam slowly turned his head towards him. “As a matter of fact, I gave my word to your...” the blond glanced at Desmond and Rayhe. “...friends that I am not going to...”

“Go to hell!” Sam interrupted him in a quiet, ringing with hatred voice.

He turned around without saying anything else and walked outside, slamming the door after him.

“Shit!” Desmond hissed and shoved his coffee mug into Rayhe’s hand. “Sam!” he ran after the young man. “Sam!” he called again when he was outside.

Sam ignored him and got into his car.

“Kid, wait...! Sam, wait...!” Desmond ran to the car and slammed both of his hands onto the passenger’s window. “Sam...!”

Sam threw the car in gear and drove off with a squeal of tires without looking at Desmond.

“Shit...” Desmond squeezed his eyes shut for a few seconds. “Shit...” he repeated in a softer voice and opened his eyes. He took a deep breath and slowly went back into the house.

Gabriel was still holding both mugs, his expression tortured. He gave Desmond a silent, questioning look.

“He took off like a bat out of hell,” Desmond muttered and took his mug from Gabriel’s grasp.

“Can you blame him?” Rayhe asked quietly, and Desmond shot a quick glance at Julian, who wasn’t paying attention to either one of them; he was whispering something into Raven’s ear.

“No,” the black-haired man answered slowly. “Not really...”

“Do you think he is going to get out of here anytime soon?” Gabriel asked in a low voice.

“No idea,” Desmond said tiredly and glanced at the blond again.

Suddenly, Raven slightly shifted on the couch, moaned, and opened his eyes.

“Fucking hell...” he muttered, and Julian narrowed his eyes for a few seconds.

“It’s you...” he said finally and planted a kiss on Raven’s mouth.

“This is unreal...” Desmond muttered, watching the blond slowly caress the smaller man’s mouth. “Oh, hell, no...!” he said louder when Raven’s hands started making their way under blond’s shirt, trying to tug it open. “You are not fucking on my couch...! You can give me all the nasty looks you want,” he nodded firmly after Salamander shot him a very dark look. “But you are not fucking on my couch!”

The blond let out an exasperated sigh and stood up. He wrote something on the piece of paper and handed it to Gabriel.

“This is where I will be staying,” he said. “Give it to Anthony when he shows up; it will be a few hours.”

Desmond sighed with relief.

“Finally!” he muttered. “By the way...” he added somewhat unwillingly when Julian was pulling Raven up on his feet. “I have an idea on how to get you out of this mess,” he looked at the dark-haired man. “I don’t know if it will work or not though. If it works, great...!” he nodded and drank his coffee. “If it doesn’t...” he shrugged. “I don’t want to be held responsible,” he finished with another slight nod.

“What is it?” Julian’s arm wrapped around Raven’s shoulders in a possessive fashion. “You will not be held responsible,” he said when he caught Desmond’s look.

The green-eyed man sighed with ‘I-can’t-believe-I-am-doing-this’ look on his face, and then he started talking.