Page 74 of Xerxes Ascendant
But whores were good at collecting secrets. Feigning impressed awe helped to make Akira’s clients each feel individually special, loosening both their tongues and credit accounts. And not only had it gained an extra two hours ofservice his House could charge the mayor for –clever boy,Master Theta had praised on his return,although try for more next time– but had garnered Akira a wealth of knowledge about the operations of the Rise that had served him well tonight.
Even if it brought back worse memories: not of that first appointment, in which following the tour Mackenroth had treated Akira’s body as savagely as his whispered taunts had promised, but of the following times Akira returned to the building. When he’d been hired not for exclusive use but to be shared among the guests at the type of parties he’d once described to Kyle. The events where not everyone made it home afterwards, and the sheer horror of that...of meeting people in similar service situations to him whom he never saw again and were subsequently spoken of only in the past tense and hushed tones.
Stars, Akira would rather not relive those years of fear. Of doing his best to please and tempt and keep the avaricious, self-entitled men wanting more so that his Master wouldn’t decide he was expendable and sell him off to them.
Because those who were bought became the invisible playthings of the rich and powerful, used and abused until they lost their perceived worth and were tossed over the side of the city along with the already-dead.
Akira would never forget that Mayor Benedict Mackenroth had sought that fate for Kyle. Had offered credits and threats to make it happen, setting a chain of events in motion that led tohere, this moment, with the pair of them standing outside the office of the son-of-a-bitch himself.
“Master?” Kyle asked gently, not a trace of impatience on that steadfast, handsome face of his despite the dangers that were undoubtedly closing in on them with every second that passed. “Are you alright?”
“I will be.” Akira blew out an unsteady breath. “Let’s do this.”
He shoved open the office door, hard enough to reveal the room beyond without allowing it to bang against the wall, and forced himself to step inside. Evidently still in a playful mood, Kyle gave his ass a sharp slap as Akira passed by.
The office boasted a richly carpeted floor and large, floor-to-ceiling windows filled with a dazzling parade of lights; not the seedy, attention-seeking neon of the lower levels but more muted, uniform lighting emanating from high-rise apartments and corporate offices. A sweeping desk of real wood curved across the centre of the room, circling most of the way around the singular high-backed chair placed behind it, and various artwork and antique cases rested along the walls.
There were no chairs on this side of the desk. The individuals who earned the privilege of meeting with Xerxes’ mayor would be forced to stand, at attention and on edge, for as long as he tolerated or demanded their presence.
A low-backed cream sofa took up space on the left side of the room, but it wasn’t for anything so mundane assittingon. Although he doubted it was the same piece of furniture after all this time, Akira still held vivid memories of being pinned down on a sofa just like that. He’d stared at the stars through the huge window until their unsteady light made his vision blur and his eyes sting, preferring that pain to what was being inflicted upon the rest of him.
Benedict had enjoyed his tears. Something else Akira had been praised for by his House Master, and it was then that he’d truly learnt the power of feigning weakness to those who would assume it.
Akira surveyed the room now with a critical eye, disregarding the sofa and focusing on the other sordid indulgences Mackenroth had chosen to fill his office with.
“Check behind that glass case there, the one with the ornate dagger,” he told Kyle, who wordlessly veered off to the righttowards it. “There should be a control panel hidden behind it that...I…what thefuck?” Akira whispered, and Kyle roared the same sentiment behind him a moment before the sound of shattering glass and a heavy thump echoed through the spacious, unwelcoming room.
Akira’s heart raced. He’d been reaching towards the polished surface of the massive desk but his hand was now still, suspended in mid-air.
“Akira! Help! I can’t move!”
“Neither can I. I can’t even turn my head to look at you,” Akira said back to Kyle, hearing the unrestrained panic in his voice. He scanned the window in front of him, frantically searching it for his boyfriend’s reflection.
“It looks like them, sir,” said an unfamiliar man from behind.
“It is. I’d recognise that profile anywhere.” A chill crept up Akira’s spine as he heard the mayor’s greasily pontifical voice. “You always did have a fuckable body, Miyasaki. Even a decade later, you look good bent over my desk.”
“Kyle!” Akira urged. “Tell me you’re okay!”
“I’m okay,” Kyle said obligingly. He sounded like he was somewhere down on the floor, but Akira couldn’t see much more of him than his feet where they peeked out from behind the reflection of the desk, perfectly still. “I’d prefernotto be frozen in place by whatever fucking magic this is, but I’m not hurt.”
“For now,” drawled Benedict. “But we can easily fix that.”
Glass crunched. Kyle grunted. “Ow, you prick.”
White-hot fury surged through every inch of Akira’s useless muscles. “Mackenroth,” he snarled. Dragging his eyes up, he met the man’s reflected gaze in the window. He was already watching Akira from where he stood over Kyle, with a satisfied smirk tugging at one side of his mouth. “Leave him alone!”
“Despite everything you two have done, I wouldn’t have bothered coming after you,” the mayor lied, spreading his armsin feigned benevolence. In the window, Akira could make out the murky silhouettes of multiple guards standing warily at Mackenroth’s back, and the guns glinting in their hands. “But considering you’ve gifted yourselves so pitifully at my feet...I shall have to send that Carrion bitch my thanks. Accompanied by a bullet to the head, of course, for she’s almost as bothersome as the Coterie.”
“Master,” Kyle pleaded. “Can you get yourself free?”
“Neither of you are going anywhere,” Benedict declared contemptuously before Akira could respond. “The runes holding you in place are inscribed on the floor beneath the carpet, and once triggered can only be deactivated from the outside. You’re both quite helpless...just how I like all my Xerxians,” he added with a sharp laugh. His guards didn’t respond to the jibe, either too stupid or too loyal to take offence.
Mackenroth was suddenly behind Akira, so close he could feel warm air on the back of his neck.
“You really should have known better than to get on my bad side,” the man breathed into his hair, the silky cruelty in his tone familiar and haunting. “You’ve seen what happens to such people, have you not? Or do you need reminding?”
A hand slid up his body, slow and leisurely. Arrogant in the way it roved without restraint, the touch declared possession of him despite the absence of consent…and delighting in such absence. Akira remained silent, watching the looming guards rather than the man who preferred to take than be given.
