9
SAM
Was there a Stockholm Syndrome equivalent for sex? Cause that's what this was like.
I now lay on the fur coat floor, with this woman's body flat on top of mine, chin and cheek against my chest. I watched her rise and fall with my breath in the darkness, enjoying the pleasing weight of her on my body.
She was a thief. And she'd taken me to her drug dealer's place, or whoever this was. Someone who wanted to rob me--that was an important distinction. As if picking my pocket wasn't enough.
And I'd just had sex with her.
I'd been unable to stop myself. She was so beautiful then, face illuminated by the dim sliver of light coming from between the closet doors. Something had come over me. I didn't care that she'd stolen from me, and wanted to do so again.
Even now, in the calming afterglow of sex, I didn't much care.
There was too much to process, a deeper part of my brain knew. The totem, and having it stolen at the airport. The pain of being distant from it, like individual hairs slowly plucked one at a time. The strange bond I felt for this woman, whose name I didn't even know.
And, you know, the crazy gryphon stuff.
Oh my God, flying had felt so amazing. I could still remember the sensation of the wind as I dove, pressing my feathers flat against my wings. Flexing muscles that had long been unused. It was a pleasure all its own.
It didn't make sense, and it was pants-on-head crazy, but it was amazing. And the animal rumbled in my chest to do it again.
"I wasn't gunna rob you," the woman whispered into my chest.
"Huh?"
"What I said to Terrance. I was just trying to buy some time. I didn't actually want to rob you."
And even though the words would have been terrifying in any other context, hearing them now calmed me. I believed her. I knew it was the truth.
See? Like sex-triggered Stockholm Syndrome.
"Technically, you already robbed me."
I felt her smile rather than saw it. "Yeah. Sorry about that."
"But I believe you."
Her eyelashes tickled my chest as she blinked a few times. "Good."
"Good," I agreed. There was laughter from the other room, which I took as a good sign.
"When are we gunna talk about the elephant in the closet?" she said.
I stroked her hair. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. I felt so drawn to you, and just seized on it because I thought you felt the same..."
She twisted on my body and leaned up to give me a quick kiss. "Not that. That was great. I was talking about the bird thing."
"Oh. Well." I took a deep breath, which was tough with her on my chest. "That totem is a gryphon. A mythological creature, half lion and half eagle. The Greeks believed..."
She tapped her fingers on my left nipple. "Dude, that is so not the part of all of this I'm confused about."
I knew that, but it felt good to explain something. "I know as much as you do. I found that totem in Central America, and since then I've felt something inside of me. A buzzing, like a caged animal banging against the bars. And on the roof of that parking garage, it finally got out."
"Did it... hurt?" she asked. "It sounded like it hurt. I thought I could feel it, too."
"Yeah," I said. "It hurt. Like the worst pain I'd ever felt, except all over my body. But once it was over it felt... amazing."
"Amazing?"
"Like I was finally me, for the first time in my life. It just felt... right. I don't know."
She shrugged and rested her head on me again. "So you just found it in Central America? You didn't steal it?"
"In a cave in Belize. God's honest truth."
"You're sure you're not some mafia smuggler? Because you made some slick moves in that Mustang when you were chasing me."
This again? "I told you, I don't have a Mustang. I drive a blue Honda Accord, which is still parked in that garage."
"Then who..." she sounded worried, but then shook it off. She did a push-up to get off my body, and I felt a twinge of regret at no longer feeling her warmth.
She reached into her coat pocket and took out the totem. The sapphire glowed blue in the darkness.
"You can have it back." She thrust it at me.
My hand twitched to grab it, but I stopped myself. After she'd stolen it from my pocket in the airport, the feeling of being away from it was painful. I had to get it back in my possession, and I would have driven across the country to follow it if I had to.
But since changing into the gryphon, that feeling was gone. Replaced by something different.
"I don't think I want it," I said.
"Is that a joke?" she snapped.
I struggled for the words. "It feels better in your hands. Like it belongs there."
She gaped at me. "This is yours. I stole it from you. It's worth... fuck, I don't know how much!"
"I can't explain it," I insisted. "Don't you feel it too? That it's pulsing, happy in your hands?"
She hesitated, which was all the answer I needed.
"Plus, I didn't change into the gryphon until--"
I cut off at a bang from the other room. Footsteps drew near, and then there was a knock on the door to the room.
"Yo, Ezra. You can come out now." The steps moved back down the hall.
"Nice of him to offer carrying your unconscious body," she muttered.
"Ezra," I said, tasting the word.
"Yes?"
"I didn't know your name until then. It's pretty."
She leaned back and stuck out her legs to pull her panties on, then her pants. "I'm sure it's not the first time you've banged a girl without knowing her name."
"It is, actually." I blurted it out without thinking, and felt embarrassed afterwards.
But Ezra didn't make fun of me, and picked up one of the fur coats in the darkness. "Here. Put this on."
I cracked open the closet doors to give myself enough light to see. The coat was black and white, with pink stripes in the lining around the neck.
"It's a little late to be putting on Halloween costumes."
"Just do it. Trust me."
I did trust her, so I obeyed, closing it around me tightly and then following her into the other room.
The place was filthy, something I hadn't noticed in my barely-conscious state upon entering: food wrappers covered the floor, along with black lines of accumulated dust along the walls, and there was an ever-present smell of burnt food. Sitting on the couch was a fat black man with sweat coating his face, and a gun tucked conspicuously into his waistband.
His glowered when he saw me. "Aww hell no, get your naked ass out of that coat!"
Ezra stepped in front of me protectively. "He didn't have much choice. If only you were willing to lend him some clothes..."
Terrance hopped to his feet and brushed past us, grumbling about my pasty white ass.
"Your drug dealer's charming," I said.
"I barely know the guy. I've only been in Denver two days."
Before I could ask more, Terrance returned with a fistful of clothes. He tossed them at me without looking, and when I unfolded them I blinked.
"Jeans shorts? It's thirty degrees outside."
Terrance whirled. "Motherfucker, do you see how tall I am? I don't have anything long enough for your stork legs."
"Plus, you were wearing shorts at the airport," Ezra pointed out.
Terrance nodded as if that concluded the discussion. "Hurry up and get dressed and we can... take you home."
The pause was hardly noticeable, but it was there. Their shared decision to rob me. The gun-bulge underneath his shirt drew my eyes like a magnet.
I turned around and stepped into the shorts slowly.
It was two against one, if Ezra was on my side. But that didn't matter if he pulled the gun. Bad idea, especially with the tension thick in the air.
Jesus, the idea of having a loaded gun in my proximity was terrifying by itself. I was an astronomy engineer! This wasn't in my wheelhouse.
The shorts were baggy enough that they covered my knees, and although they bunched up around the waist the belt held them tight. I slid out of my fur coat, handed it to Ezra, and then pulled the black T-shirt over my head.
"Look," I said, "I don't have much at my house, but I want to give you something. For saving me from the cops."
Terrance crossed his arms and said, "I'm listening."
"I've got about a grand in my bank account. Once I get home, I'll grab my spare debit card and withdraw it for you. Think of it as a reward for saving my ass." I gave what I hoped was a grateful smile.
It was risky, because all I was doing was dangling more loot in front of him. Giving him more incentive to rob me. But maybe a thousand bucks in easy cash sounded better than adding another crime to his rap sheet. I could see him doing the mental math, and said a silent prayer that he came out on the end I wanted.
Finally, he nodded. "Yeah, alright."
Of course, that didn't mean he wasn't going to rob me anyways. But we could worry about that when we got to my place. I took two steps toward him and extended my hand, and after a second he looked me in the eye and shook it. I hoped it was enough to convince him to let me pay him off peacefully.
Ezra asked, "So how far away do you live, anyways?"
"Well, that depends on where we are. My house is over in Cedarwood."
"Fuckin' fancy," Terrance muttered.
"That's what, eight miles from here?" Ezra reached into her pocket, but then sighed and said, "Fuckin' cops took my phone..."
And as she pulled her hand back out and turned, the totem slipped out.
It tumbled through the air before hitting the carpet, rolling to a stop against the couch with the sapphire facing up.
For a long moment, none of us moved.
Terrance came out of the trance first, snatching the totem off the ground and staring at it with wide eyes. "Holy fuck..."
"Just wait a second," I said, stepping forward.
Terrance had the gun out in a flash. "No," he commanded, as if he were speaking to a stray dog.
I'd never had a gun pointed at my face before. It wasn't an experience you could explain until it happened to you. I froze with primal fear, my brain screaming holy shit I'm one second away from this man killing me. My knees wobbled, actually wobbled, it wasn't just some stupid saying, and I felt so light-headed that I feared I would faint.
Terrance kept the gun trained on me, but spoke to Ezra. "Your take was just a hundred bucks, huh?"
"I can explain," she said slowly, palms held out placatingly. "I didn't mention it because it's fake. Some trinket from a gift shop..."
"Bitch, fucking no," Terrance spat. "I worked in my uncle's thrift shop until I was eighteen. I know gemstones."
The totem pulsed, alive and angry. I knew Ezra could feel it too, demanding that we take it back, that this person had no right to clutch it in his hands. The desire to leap forward and fight him battled with my instincts to cower in a ball in the corner.
And again, I could see him doing the math in his head. Weighing the value of that sapphire against our lives. If we were anywhere else he could probably just make a run for it, but this was his place. We knew where it was. I doubted he would let us just walk out of here alive.
But the totem wouldn't let us go without it. Dying was preferable to leaving it. Somehow, I knew that too.
I was wondering how hard it would be for a drug dealer to get rid of two bodies when I heard the voice in my head.
I HAVE FOUND YOU, it boomed, high-pitched and nasal. YOU BOTH RAN, AND I FOLLOWED, AND NOW HERE YOU ARE.
I looked around, but nobody else could hear it. Was I going crazy?
IT ENDS NOW, SAPPHIRE.
A gunshot spoke outside.
Three sets of heads whipped toward the kitchen wall. The gunshot was distant, but not that distant. A block away? This wasn't my specialty.
"That came from--" Terrance cut off as Ezra leaped into him, shoving his arm to the side.
CRACK-BANG.
The gun firing was like a white-hot poker jabbed into my eardrum. I recoiled instinctively, and was suddenly dizzy, and then the ground came up and struck me in the face.