Chapter 9
Bad Guy
Pain was the first thing Elias noticed. Every muscle ached, though his bones were no longer on fire. He moaned, trying to talk and failing.
“It’s alright.”
Valen’s voice, followed by something cold on his forehead.
“No.” Elias mumbled the word as well as he could around his thick tongue. He couldn’t move his head.
“It’s just a rag,” Valen whispered. “I wouldn’t do it without your permission.”
Elias couldn’t slow his breathing. The panic at the idea that Valen would look into his mind, that he would see Lucky Fandell alive, continued to build. Acid crawled up his throat.
“Here,” Valen said.
Something hard was placed between Elias’s legs, Valen lifting him into a sitting position, and then further until his face was touching the rim of what felt like a trash can. Right on time too, because his stomach couldn’t hold out any longer. Damnit, there went his streak. Valen wiped his mouth with a cloth and laid him back down, removing the trash can from between his legs.
“Just rest.”
Elias didn’t remember falling back asleep, but shot up under his own power when he woke up the second time, stomach already heaving. He didn’t see Valen, but the man must have been there, because the trash can appeared out of nowhere in front of him. He retched for a few minutes, his stomach too empty to bring up anything but bile. Valen handed him a glass of water when he was done. He filled his mouth, swishing the water around before spitting it into the trashcan and repeating the process a few more times. Valen took the glass back and moved it and the trashcan off of the bed, helping him to lay back again.
Elias closed his eyes and groaned. The room was spinning as if he was drunk enough to blackout. If only. He opened his eyes instead, but it wasn’t much better. Valen was sitting next to him on the bed. “I haven’t been sick in a long time,” Elias said, his voice a scratchy whisper.
“You shouldn’t have waited so long between treatments.”
Elias chuckled. It hurt his chest. “I know. This almost feels as bad as the first time.”
Valen smiled down at him. “That one almost killed you. This is nothing compared.”
“Let’s see you do it, then,” Elias whispered. “Then you can tell me how much nothing you felt.”
“I’m not the one with radiation sickness.” Valen leaned over the edge of the bed, a damp cloth in his hand when he reappeared. He dabbed at Elias’s forehead and cheeks, the cloth leaving behind a cooling wetness.
Elias flinched when the cold rag touched his chest. He lifted his head and looked at himself. He was still wearing his pants, but his jacket, shirt, and boots were gone. His head fell back onto the pillow. “Mm, so this is how you get men into your bed.”
Valen laughed. “Not exactly. They’re usually conscious.” He touched the cloth to Elias’s skin again, fingertips brushing his neck and collarbone. “You’re still running a fever, but the blisters are gone.”
“Good,” Elias said, pushing himself into a sitting position. His arms shook with the effort. “I’ll be on my way, then.” He had no idea how long he’d been out. Lucky would be rightfully pissed.
“Wait, Elias.” Valen put a hand against his chest to hold him in place.
Had he no other obligations, he may have chosen to stay, spend another day in the company of Valen and Ves, but he did. Grabbing the pale hand of his friend, he removed it from his person. “I’ve been here long enough.”
When he stood, Valen followed suit. Elias ignored him, looking around the room for his clothes. His jacket was over the back of the desk chair, the shirt folded neatly on the desktop and the shoes on the floor beside it. He stumbled over to it, left and then right, the ship rocking back and forth as if it were in an ocean instead of deep space. His head was light.
“What the hell?”
“As entertaining as it would be to watch you fall over,” Valen said, his hands wrapping around Elias’s biceps to steady him, “perhaps you should sit.” Despite the cold and pale appearance of Valen’s skin, his hands were warm.
“Will you find any excuse to touch me?” The words were sharp, sharper than he had meant them to be, but he needed the man to stop pestering him so he could leave. Mark’s sedative lasted at least a few hours, much longer than he had planned on leaving Lucky in that compartment. Elias kept his eyes down so he wouldn’t have to see Valen’s reaction to his words. There was a moment of hesitation before Valen’s hands disappeared from his arms.
“I apologize,” Valen said after a moment, his voice quiet. “I didn’t realize that the contact was unwanted. You’ve never said so before.”
Elias grabbed the back of the chair to stop from swaying in pace, and kept a hand on it when he turned around. “I never gave you permission either.”
“That’s not fair,” Valen whispered, a half smile on his lips. “You know I’m awful at guessing someone’s thoughts.”
“Doesn’t stop you from taking them, though.”
Valen scoffed, taking a step back. “My god, Elias, sometimes being around you is exhausting. You beg me to look into your mind and then you don’t want me in your mind, you’re fine with me using my ability on others and then make me feel like a monster for being born with it in the first place. I struggle to keep up with your ever-changing preference.”
“Then have a look,” Elias said, closing the distance between them. His muscles were tense with new anger that came from nowhere. He grabbed Valen’s hand and held it to his cheek, the other man’s fingers splaying in his hair. While one Weaver may be able to exert their influence by touching any skin, Valen had to make contact as close to the brain as he could get. Anything above the neck was fair game.
Valen flinched when his hand came in contact with Elias’s face. He took deep, steadying breaths, jaw muscles tight.
“Just be aware, Valen,” Elias continued in a dangerous voice, “you may not like what you see.”
The effort it took Valen to control himself was readily apparent. His deep breaths became faster, the tendons in his neck flexing with each inhale, and his lips cracked open to pull in more oxygen. His hand shook under Elias’s, but Elias held it in place.
“What do you say, love?” It was wrong of him to mock, he knew. Elias also knew that Valen would never break the one-sided promise not to fracture his sanity. Bringing his face as close as he dared to the trembling man, Elias stared into dark eyes. “Get it over with, already.”
“Augh!” Valen reared back, yanking his hand out of Elias’s grip. He turned away, heaving huge breaths. Elias had never seen the man so close to breaking a sweat. He didn’t look at Elias when he spoke his next words. “Get out.”
“With pleasure.” Turning away, Elias grabbed his clothes and boots into his arms and left, slamming the door shut on his way out.
“Lover’s quarrel?” Ves asked in a teasing tone. She was lounging on one of the sofas, her hair long and braided. Purple tendrils of royal odyssey drifted out from between her lips.
“I’ve told you to stop smoking that shit, Ves,” Elias said as he passed by her on his way to the hangar.
“Nice to see you too,” she called after him.
Felix was sitting on one of Barbara’s wings, jumping up when Elias walked into the hangar. “I thought you were never coming back,” he said, taking in Elias’s bare feet and shirtless chest. “What the hell happened to you?”
“Not what you think,” Elias said, stepping onto the wing and entering the ship. “Where’s Mark?”
Felix followed him. “He’s asleep.”
“Shut the door.”
The other man followed the orders while Elias turned the ship on and typed coordinates into the console. He turned the ship around to face the exit, waiting impatiently for the hatch to close.
“Where are we going?” Felix asked after he sat in the passenger seat. The hatch hissed and clunked behind them.
“Home.” The ship shot out of the hangar at Elias’s urging. He pushed her to the limit to get them out of Valen’s radar range, only slowing once they were double the distance. Turning on the autopilot, Elias slid out of his seat to crouch on the floor.
“She was quiet the whole time,” Felix said.
“How long was I gone?” Elias asked, pressing his palms against the panel. He pushed it hard, a click sounding and the edges of the panel popping up enough for him to get his fingernails under it.
“You were in there for like eight hours.”
“What?” He yelled the word, tossing the panel aside. Lucky Fandell was still curled up in the cramped compartment, exactly where he had left her. Of course she was. The panel didn’t open from the inside. She was crying, but otherwise didn’t seem to realize that he and Felix were there. “Shit. Let’s get you out of there. Help me, Felix.”
Felix hopped out of his seat without question. Together, carefully, they lifted Lucky out of the hole. She was stiff like a body in rigor mortis, and she screamed when her joints moved.
“Mark, get out here!”
Once she was out of the hole, Elias tucked one arm under her knees, the other around her back, and lifted. He stumbled when he tried to stand, his legs too shaky, too weak.
“Damnit,” he whispered under his breath, resting on his knee. “I can’t stand up.”
“What do you mean?” Felix asked.
“I mean I can’t bloody stand up, Felix. What else could I mean?”
“Alright, sorry,” Felix said, stooping and slipping his arms under Elias’s. “Let go. I’ve got her.”
“Put her on the bottom bunk, and be careful with her.”
“Good thing you said something. I was going to toss her in the liquor cabinet.”
Elias glared after the man, using the pilot seat to pull himself up off the floor. The muscles in his legs twitched their protest, but he ignored them, making his way over to the bunks. He kneeled down beside Felix. Lucky’s whole body was shaking, her breath hissing and eyes squeezed shut. Elias knew the pain she felt, had felt it himself too many times to count. “Mark!”
“Tcktit-zzckti!” Mark said in annoyance, flying over to them from his tunnel exit at the workbench. He landed on Elias’s hand.
“You have to give her a bite,” Elias said.
“Zckt?” Mark looked from Lucky to Felix.
Elias waved a hand to dismiss the beetle’s concern. “He was bound to find out eventually. Go on.”
Mark looked at Felix one more time before flying to land on the bottom bunk. He approached the woman with caution, careful not to get crushed by her spasming limbs, and bit her on the wrist.
Lucky cried out, her arms curling against her chest as they had been in the hole. After a moment, her twitching muscles slowed, and then stopped. The tension left her face, and her breathing quieted to an even pace. She looked for all the world like she had fallen asleep.
“What just happened?” Felix asked.
Elias grabbed her arms, pulling them away from her chest to lay them straight on the bunk, and then straightened out her legs. “Mark put her to sleep.”
“He can do that?”
The aforementioned bug let out a yawn, and Elias picked him up. He grabbed the edge of the top bunk and grunted as he pulled himself up again. Bringing Mark back to the workbench, he set him down in front of the tunnel entrance. “Go to bed. You’ve more than earned it.”
Mark crawled into the tunnel without another word, apparently too exhausted to make any smartass comments.
“Oh!” Felix said, the word longer than it needed to be. “Is that why Valen grabbed Mark last night, to make you sleep? I thought you guys were doing something else.”
“I know what you thought, and no, I wasn’t fucking Valen. Mark bit me. The sleep is just a side effect of the bite.” Elias pushed the floor panel for the smuggling hold with his foot, stomping it a few times to drive it back into place. “Drink?”
“No,” Felix said, waving his hands in front of himself. He looked a bit green. “That Ves can drink thirty men under the table. I don’t even remember leaving, but I woke up on the wing of the ship in the middle of the night.”
Elias huffed a laugh, unlocking the liquor cabinet and pouring himself a whiskey. “Yeah, we’ve all made the mistake of trying to outdrink her exactly one time. Valen came closest, but he also gave himself alcohol poisoning.”
“I can’t imagine that guy drunk,” Felix said, going back to the cockpit to reclaim his seat.
“It happens more often than you might think,” Elias said, joining him.
“What’s with them anyway, Valen and Ves?”
Elias shrugged. “Assassins stick together.”
“She’s an assassin? Which one?” Felix was practically vibrating with excitement.
Elias glanced at him, and then leaned back in his seat, kicking his feet up onto the console. “Take a guess.”
Felix thought about it for a long moment, occasionally shaking his head with a noise of dissent. Eventually, he looked up. “The Mimic, right? It’s the only description that fits, what with the purple skin. Why ‘mimic’ though, does she shape shift of something?”
“Do you know many shape shifters?” Elias asked, his head lolling to the side to look at the other man.
“None.”
“Do you think shape shifters exist?”
Felix thought about it. “No, probably not. We’d know about them by now if they did. So, what, she changes colors?”
“No, that’s the Chameleon,” Elias said. He pointed at his head. “It’s the hair. It changes constantly. She refuses to show anyone how she does it. Even Valen doesn’t know, and they’ve been partnered for years. We tried to catch her at it once. Stupid.” He laughed, and lifted his shirt to his belly button. Next to his right hipbone was a thin pale line. “I’ve still got the scar.”
Felix laughed. “That’s amazing. It’s a cool name. Hey,” he scooted to the edge of his seat to bring himself closer to Elias, “when do I get a nickname?”
“Oh, Felix,” Elias said, slouching deeper into his seat and closing his eyes, “these things can’t be rushed.”
“When did you get yours?”
“When I agreed to work with Mark.”
“So, right away?” Felix sounded disappointed.
“Yeah, well, a name like ‘the Chauffeur’ is the obvious choice for someone who agrees to chauffeur someone around the galaxy, isn’t it?” Elias didn’t care about nicknames enough to bother trying for a different one.
“Why did you agree to work with Mark?” Felix asked after a moment. “He’s not exactly easy to be around.”
Ah, fuck it. Felix already saw Mark bite Lucky. “I was dying, they gave me the option to live.”
“Wow, that easy?”
He cracked an eye open to look at Felix. The man was picking at a loose thread on his pants. “Not really,” Elias said, letting his eyes drift shut again. “Mark killed the first three people that Valen approached.”
“Whoa. Why didn’t he kill you?”
“He didn’t kill them on purpose, Felix. They just didn’t survive the bite.”
“Is that like another initiation thing?” Felix’s words were hesitant, fearful.
Elias smiled. “No, it’s only for those who need it.”
“Oh…”
Several minutes passed in silence, Elias’s body growing heavy and mind starting to drift before Felix spoke up again.
“How many times have you done it?”
A few more moments passed before Elias answered him.
“I’ve lost count.”
Reminder: This story is unique in that it’s being posted as it’s being written, and that it’s up to you, the reader, if it will continue. So, don’t forget to vote in the poll above if you’d like to see another chapter. If majority yes, there will be a new chapter. If majority no, the story will end here. :)
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This was by far the most I’ve struggled with a chapter yet. I’m still not satisfied with it. I know there was bound to come a point with posting a first draft as I write it that there would be a chapter that I’m unhappy with. Was hoping I’d make it further into the story first, but what are ya gonna do? haha I’m still expecting it to all fall apart around the midpoint, as my first draft always do.
So, let me know what you think of this one. Do you like it? Dislike it? Do you wish there was something else in here, or something that was further expanded on? Some things I will be expanding on more at a later time, such as how Mark’s bite works. I’d love to expand on the different assassins out there as well, of course, though this may be more of a second draft venture.
Anyway, I do hope this chapter was enjoyable enough for you to want another one, but if you vote for the end based on this one, I wouldn’t blame you. lol
Until next time?
Nice work
I could feel poor Lucky's stiff muscles... ugh! Such good writing.