Page 66 of Hounded

Mate.

It was as clear as anything. The smell of him, the feeling of my fingers in his hair, the way his olive skin bronzed in the sun, and the pools of his eyes so deep and dark they could swallow me whole. I wanted him, but Icouldn’t have him, so I would have to settle for something else.

I looked at Chaz, whose attention had begun to roam.

“What’ve you got?” I gestured to his leather jacket and the pills and powders I knew to be inside.

He patted his bulging coat pocket almost defensively. “Thought you were going straight.”

My lips pursed in a tart smile. “Nah, I’m too fruity for that.”

Chaz snorted a laugh. “Funny.” He nodded, and I did, too. Then he dipped into his coat’s inner pocket and began rooting around. “How many you want?”

“The usual, I guess?”

He grunted and ducked down, thumbing through an unseen inventory until he pulled out a baggie with three pills inside. He handed them to me, and I tucked them close to my chest, studying them in the muted light. Green Apples.

“What do I owe you?” I asked.

“Call it fifty,” he replied.

I pulled a few bills out of my wallet and handed them to him. Apparently, mine was not a cheap habit. I’d have to make the pills last. Maybe cut them in half… I glanced at them again, wondering about dosage but unwilling to own my ignorance about one more thing.

Chaz tugged his zipper back up, then regarded me with a crooked look. “Take it easy, all right? Don’t wanna scramble your egg any worse.”

Closing my fingers around the baggie, I turned toward the open room. Ecstasy was a party drug, but I wasn’t in a party mood. All I wanted to do was go home, lie down, and do the only thing I was good at: forget.

24

Loren

For the next severaldays, I was in Hell more than out of it, and in Moira’s bed more than I had been in years. With the Airstream’s shower restored to working order, the trailer park bathhouse was again a safe place to retreat, regroup, and reconsider my options when it came to the threat on Indy’s life.

It seemed the only choice I had was to fight. The new hellhounds were fresh and untested. I had decades of experience in combat and in navigating New York. There were plenty of places to hide or bunker down and, if Indy was found, we could relocate and put up new wards as many times as it took.

So, I maximized my time away from Earth. I watched the other hounds spar and brawl; I even fought against them. Moira assumed I was helping them improve, but I’d given up on that. I needed to beat them. Soundly. I swept their legs out from under them, feinted at their throats, and pinned them to the dirt floor of the arena so that when we inevitably met in combat, defeat would be fresh in theirminds.

Whitney remained the larger threat. Since Nero took ownership of my fellow hound, I hadn’t seen him. I wondered if he was locked in the empty abyss of the archdemon’s chambers or roaming Earth in search of my phoenix.

Those worries kept me awake on nights like this one, after I’d slipped out of Moira’s post-coital clutches. I sat in my truck with the windows down, letting the cool air whip through the cab. It fluttered the golden feather that hung from my rearview mirror and made the plain gold band that dangled beside it slowly sway. I reached for the ring and rubbed my thumb over the smooth metal.

Brooklyn, New York

June 25th, 2011

Last night, Indy fell asleep with a rainbow painted on his cheek. This morning, color was smeared across his pillowcase, but he was gone, up before the sun and rattling around in the kitchen.

We’d spent the previous day in Greenwich Village, wearing pride shirts and waving flags while we waited for the court’s ruling. By the time it was announced, we were hot and sweaty, but joyful. I’d witnessed more historic moments than I could count, but this one felt personal. It resonated all the way back to my first life and my first love. It made peace with things about myself I’d tried to changeand been forced to hide.

I was born in an era when men couldn’t be the way I was. We were cursed, spat on, cast out, and even killed. But I’d lived long enough to see the world change. Yesterday, it changed for the better.

I slid out from under the sheets, a bit bedraggled with my hair frizzed. Before I could swing my legs to the floor, Indy’s voice carried from the other end of the trailer.

“Don’t you dare move! I’m coming right back!”

Chuckling, I elbowed my pillow into a rounder shape, then laid back with my hands clasped behind my head.

A few seconds later, Indy returned. He went to the bedside table and clicked on the lamp. He’d washed his face and was dressed in a fuzzy blue sweater and white chinos. He flashed a wide grin over the wooden tray he held, laden with a plate and mug and a vase of multicolor roses.

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