8
EZRA
"You're right," Terrance said. "I don't believe you."
He went to the window again, pulling aside the drapes enough to look out, though all he could see was a tiny sliver of the alley. The cop sirens had risen to a terrifying crescendo, then diminished in the distance. They were a few blocks away now, as best as we could tell, though the sound was an unnerving background noise that made it impossible to relax.
I stared at Sam's still body on the couch and said, "It's the truth."
Terrance left the window. He was short but thick, a bowling ball of a man. He rubbed sweat from his black scalp and turned his eyes to me.
"I'll buy that he's a mark you took pity on. And even that he saved you from the cops." He shook his head slowly. "But you still haven't explained why he's buck-ass-naked."
Okay, so I didn't tell him the truth. Not the whole truth. Can you blame me? I wasn't sure I believed it myself, and I was there. I'd literally seen it happen. Technically I wasn't lying when I said he was a mark who'd followed me, and that he'd saved me from the cops. But it was the rest of what happened that I couldn't really explain.
And Terrance's stare was suspicious. He knew I was hiding something.
"So what was your take?" he asked, still standing by the window.
The totem pulsed in my pocket happily. It was a comforting presence now, as if it'd done its job and could relax. Like a kitten in my pocket, with a personality all its own.
"I pinched a wallet in baggage claim, which had a few hundred bucks in cash. Plus an iPhone." I shoved my hand in my pockets and grimaced. "The cops took them, though. So all I've got is the cash."
And a priceless gemstone in my pocket. I prayed he wouldn't see the bulge. The sapphire was the kind of thing worth killing someone for.
I extended the fistful of cash, and Terrance swiftly stepped forward to snatch it. He took a few seconds to count the bills, then turned his eyes back to me.
"This is less than you expected."
"Yeah, well, things got hairy. I'll get more next time."
"Why would I lend you a car again if the only thing I get out of it is a twenty dollar take? Did you at least fill the tank?"
I winced. "Actually, about that... the car got made too. I parked it in the garage over on Eliot Street, but the cops have it now."
I could see the rage fall across Terrance's face as if it were happening in slow motion. The muscles in his face tightened, and the vein in his neck bulged. He squeezed the cash in an angry fist.
In that moment I realized how much trust I'd put in this guy. A friend of a friend, I'd met him exactly 36 hours ago. He'd been reluctant to let me crash here in the first place, and now...
All the scenarios of what could happen played out in my head, and none of them were good.
"Right now, you're causing me a lot of risk and not a lot of reward," he growled. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't cut his throat and throw him in a dumpster for the cops to find."
The totem pulsed in alarm. It was a rod of molten lava against my hip, demanding I throw myself onto Sam's unconscious body in protection. I couldn't do that, though, so I suggested the first thing that came to my head. The thing that came most naturally to a girl like me.
"We can rob him," I quickly said.
"What?"
I jerked my head at Sam's prone shape. "He lives here in Denver." At least I thought so. I wasn't certain. "When he wakes, we'll take him back to his place. I bet he's got stuff worth taking: TVs, computers. He said he's an astronomer or some shit."
Terrance barked a laugh. "Astronomer? Girl, you see those tattoos on his arm? He ain't no Carl Sagan looking motherfucker."
"I'm just telling you what he told me."
He stepped up until his body was close to mine, and I could smell the faint linger of cigarette smoke. "Rob him with what car?"
I took a deep breath and tried not to step back. "All I know is, if you throw him out the window you're essentially throwing away a few grand. Easy decision, if it were me."
He had to think about it. The wheels turned in his meaty drug-dealer head, weighing the pros and cons. Legitimately considering cutting his throat and dumping him like a sack of garbage. It made a measly thief like me feel small. And weak.
Finally Terrance jabbed a finger in my direction. "You're lucky I owe Bobby a favor. The minute he's awake--" he nodded toward the couch, "--we take a ride. And he'd better be worth the trip."
"Yeah, sure." Sweat beaded at my temple, and I avoided wiping it away. The totem in my pocket dimmed in intensity.
Terrance went into the kitchen. "But I ain't giving him none of my clothes!"
He started making some food, so I sat on the edge of the couch and put a palm up to Sam's forehead. He felt normal, despite sweating in the cold when we were on the garage roof. Overall he seemed fine except for the smear of blood on his shoulder, from a wound we hadn't been able to find.
Because he'd been shot in a limb that he no longer has.
A bullet to the wing. Wing. From a fucking bird monster.
Now that the immediate danger had passed, my brain started to process what had happened.
I retraced everything slowly. Sam had approached me on the roof, and I held the totem over the edge and squeezed it. The sapphire had shifted in its place; that's when everything went to hell.
While Terrance was occupied in the kitchen, I turned my body so that it blocked his view, and pulled the totem out.
It felt different in my hands. Warm to the touch instead of cool, and heavier than before. Probably just my imagination. The sapphire was as beautiful as ever, round and brilliant and brimming with value. I ran my thumb across its surface, feeling every facet and cut. If I pressed on it, would Sam turn into a monster right here in the apartment? Curiosity overwhelmed me, and I had to try, I had to know, because otherwise it meant I was crazy and my brain couldn't handle that--
I pressed the sapphire.
It didn't budge. Not even when I squeezed harder; it was fastened in place the way it should be.
I shoved it back into my coat pocket and exhaled. Maybe I'd imagined that part of the entire ordeal. I'd been a little distracted by what had happened.
But as much as I wanted to cast it all aside and choose to believe none of it were real, the blood on Sam's shoulder rubbed at my brain like a grain of sand. Blood without a wound. Blood from his wing.
BANG BANG BANG.
A fist on the door of Terrance's apartment, demanding entry. My first instinct was to run, that it was the cops and they'd found us and we were about to be arrested. But I couldn't leave Sam...
"Yo, Terrance! Open up!"
"Shit," Terrance said, striding from the kitchen. "It's my dealer dropping off a bag."
Relief cascaded over me, but only for a second.
"You two've gotta hide." Terrance spoke in an insistent hush. "Get out!"
I looked around the room. "Where?"
"Terrance. Don't leave me standin' out here in the hall..."
"Get in the back, that room with the closed door." Terrance bent over Sam, pulling him up and then cringing when the towel fell away. "Go! And don't make any noise. My dealer's paranoid as fuck."
Sam's feet held a little bit of his weight, and I was able to guide him down the dark hallway and through the door at the end. I took one last look at Terrance, whose hand was on the deadbolt, before closing the door.
We were in what should have been a bedroom, but was filled with a maze of cardboard boxes of all sizes. Videotapes, CDs, and Blu-rays were stacked in the nearest one I could see; another held an array of brown leather jackets. It was like a thief's wet dream. And aside from all the stolen stuff, it was shockingly clean in here, in stark contrast with the living room. Of course Terrance would keep the stolen merch spotless.
There was barely enough room to walk, so I guided Sam to the closet adjacent to the door. Brown and white fur coats were piled on the floor, but there was room. I helped Sam down into a prone position, then closed the closet doors because it made me feel safe.
The voices through the wall were muffled, but I could barely make them out.
"...the cops," the dealer said.
"They're not looking for me, and that's all I know," Terrance insisted. "I swear..."
"I don't believe you!" The dealer sounded violent. I wondered if he had other men with him. "I show up here and the cops do too? You're the only one who knew I'd be here, Terrance..."
I was holding my breath. Fuck, if anything happened to Terrance because of me...
Suddenly, a hand grabbed my arm and spun me around. Sam's eyes were wide, and his grip was strong on my arm. I put a finger to my lips.
"How're you feeling?" I whispered, but his stare was intense. Almost angry.
"You," he growled.
"Shh. We can't make any noise."
"Why?" he asked, still way too fucking loud for comfort.
"Relax. You were unconscious, and naked, so we dragged you--"
"No," he cut me off with a syllable. "You're gunna rob me. Again."
I realized what he meant. He'd heard the deal I made with Terrance in the other room. And he felt betrayed by it.
Felt betrayed. Not sounded. Because somehow, there in that dark closet, I could feel his emotions. He wasn't afraid, or in pain, or even angry. He was hurt by what I'd said to Terrance.
"Bro, they're down the street," Terrance insisted in the other room. "Nowhere near here. Listen, I've got the cash for the bag..."
"Fuck you, Terrance!" the dealer yelled.
Inside our dark closet, Sam said, "How could you?"
"Shut up!" I hissed, putting a hand over his mouth. His lips were soft and warm. "They're in the other room, and something bad is about to happen."
Sam leaned forward and grabbed me by the arms, and the motion threw me back onto the fur coats. Sam fell on top of me, pinning my arms out to the sides. With him holding me down with easy strength, and his nude body covering mine, I felt a strange tingle run up my spine.
"Why?" he asked again, his sapphire eyes only inches from mine in the darkness. The muscles in his shoulders bulged in the dim light.
"To save you," I whispered. "He was gunna dump you outside for the cops to find. Or worse. I was just trying to buy you some time."
He wouldn't believe me. Why would he? I was just some thief bitch who'd stolen the most precious item in the world from him, and was planning on robbing him more. It would have been stupid to believe I'd saved his life because I felt a bond with him, even though it was the truth.
But instead of arguing with me, or calling me a liar, Sam kissed me.
His lips were as warm on mine as they'd been on my hand, and his tongue tasted like peppermint. I melted underneath him, his gorgeous lithe body with the wonderful tattoos pressing against mine. I wanted it, and needed it, and hadn't known it until just then.
He let go of my arms, and I ran my hands through his dirty blond hair and held him there, demanding that he never stop kissing me.
Sam's hand reached inside my coat, running along the shirt, searching for an opening. He slipped it underneath and up, along my ribs and to my bra and I sighed at his touch. He squeezed me above the bra and maneuvered himself in between my legs, and I spread them for him as he kissed me harder.
There was still shouting coming from the other room, but neither of us cared.
I shoved my tongue into his mouth and moaned as it danced with his own. His nose pressed against mine in wonderful symmetry, and I squeezed his hair in my fist while his fingers ran back down my belly swiftly, unable to delay. He rubbed my sex through my pants and I made a noise deep within my throat, and spread my legs more for him, surrendering to him. I moved my palm down his neck, savoring the ripples of the lean muscles in his back. He was thrusting into me then, a delicious warmth against my thigh, so I used my other hand to reach down between us, fingernails stroking along his shaft and making him squirm. Then I grabbed him, squeezed him, and began stroking him, imagining him inside of me instead of out.
Sam broke the kiss to look into my eyes, and for a moment we were one mind.
He pulled back enough to grab at my belt, and I quickly reached down and helped him, lifting my ass so he could slide the pants off me, then my panties. The fur from the coats tickled my ass and legs but I didn't care, because then Sam was pressing back down on top of me, and the head of his long cock was rubbing against the opening of my sex, and I moaned even though I was trying to stay silent.
"I want you so bad," he said in the darkness.
I pulled him into me in response. I was wet enough that it didn't take much effort, one inch, then another, then he was all the way inside and I felt the incredible ache of being filled, the tiniest bit of pain overwhelmed by the pleasure of his enormous cock.
"Ohhh..."
He kissed me again without moving, merely remaining inside of me, allowing that moment of coupling to last forever. His beard tingled against my chin, and lengths of his hair fell across my face like a curtain.
He began moving, a slow retreat at first before sliding back inside, gyrating his hips to hit all of my walls. Then I could feel his desire, his raw need for me, and he moved faster and faster while I pushed up against him.
In the other room, Terrance and his dealer spoke softly.
I exhaled a grunt with each thrust, my entire body tingling as he slid on top of me, blanketing me with his inked skin. He closed his eyes in the dim light as he fucked me, long strokes to go with his long cock, steady wonderful incredible friction of our precious parts. I tried to stay silent but it was a battle, and a groan escaped my lips against my will, and Sam pressed a finger over them and grinned wickedly. But that only turned me on more, and I was rolling on the fur coats with him, my entire body moving in time with his, a horizontal slow dance while we tried to make as little noise as possible.
His breathing sped up, his eyes becoming more strained as the pace increased. The way his pelvis grinded against my clit with each thrust filled me with ecstasy, and my pleasure was mirrored back into Sam's, a feedback loop of lust. We rose toward our climaxes together, a wave that lifted me high into the air and dropped me just as suddenly, and Sam's eyes widened too as he fucked me harder with his last strokes, and he opened his mouth wide in a silent roar of pleasure.
I gasped, and shuddered, and had to bite my lip from screaming as we came, and when we were done I pulled Sam's body against mine to feel every inch of him because it hurt to feel him go.