Page 23 of Dark Stars
His hands were warm as they cupped Bobby'sface, callouses dragging pleasantly across his skin. He tasted ofcinnamon and petrichor, and felt dangerously fragile as Bobbywrapped his arms around him, pulling Alejo flush against him. Hekissed shyly, hesitantly, as though expecting to be rejected.
Bobby was rarely ever that selfless. Hedeepened the kiss, tongue lapping at those soft lips before pushinginto his mouth, tasting and claiming. Alejo moaned and shivered ashe dropped his hands to twine his arms around Bobby's neck.
When they drew apart, though only barely,Alejo said softly, "I never get this lucky."
"You might yet come to think of it as badluck," Bobby said, and kissed him again, because not in all thethousands of years of his existence had anything been as delightfulas kissing Alejo.
They drew apart again as the last of thefireflies faded off into the night. Bobby lifted one of Alejo'shands to kiss the back of his fingers. "Tell me how you came to bebound to a demon. Your family said only that a friend betrayedyou."
"The man I thought I was in love withbetrayed me," Alejo said bitterly. "We'd been friends since we werechildren, despite the ages-old cliché of rich-poor between us. Notreally surprising I'd fall for him, I guess. Patheticallypredictable is more like it. When I told him how I felt, though, heall but laughed in my face and avoided me for like two weeks. Whenhe called saying he needed my help…" He jerked one shoulder in anangry shrug. "Still don't know why he was fucking around withdemons in the first place, and I wish I could hunt him down andkill him myself." He rolled his eyes and shrugged again. "Kind of alame story, in the end."
"The man sounds like a fool, and I hope hegets what he deserves." Bobby kissed him again, not stopping untilAlejo was clinging to him, all traces of sadness banished as he fedsoftly whimpered pleas into Bobby's mouth.
Reluctantly drawing back, Bobby sighed andsaid, "I suppose we must get back to work."
Alejo grinned shyly. "I suppose."
Hand-in-hand, they returned to Bobby'struck, and he got the heat going once they were inside. "SoWilcutt's house next?"
"Yeah, and if we don't turn up anythingthere, we can try the other teacher. We'll also need to visit theprincipal's house, but that might have to wait for tomorrow."
"Sounds good. Did you get Wilcutt'saddress?"
"Yep," Alejo replied, and directed him to itas they left the park.
As they got closer to town, Bobby reachedout to the dark, once more asking for its help in keeping them frombeing noticed. As ever, the dark was happy to assist.
"What did you just do?" Alejo asked. "I feltyou do something. Why did I feel you do something?"
Bobby smiled and reached out his free hand,twining his fingers with Alejo's when he took it. "I told youbefore, I speak to the dark, ask it nicely to do things for me. Mykind have always been close to the dark; it's more or less what weare, in many respects." He pushed the barest trickle of his power,of his senses, into Alejo, so he could see and feel the way Bobbydid.
Alejo gasped, the shock jolting through himlike electricity. "How…how do youhandlethis."
"It's normal for me, the filtering is asinstinctive as breathing. But you can see why we primordial drivehumans insane." Bobby kissed the back of his hand, enjoying the wayAlejo flushed and muttered something in Spanish too low tocatch.
A couple of minutes later, he parked at thecurb not quite in front of Wilcutt's house. They watched it for abit. No lights, no movement, though Bobby thought he could hear thefaintest heartbeat. Something small, maybe a pet. No other vehicleswere around.
"No arcana that I can sense," Alejo said."It's like they killed her and forgot about her."
"Wouldn't surprise me if that's exactly whatthey did. I mean, they didn't even bother to clean up the bloodafter they killed her. Not unusual behavior for cultists like this,but still damned cold." He climbed out of the truck and circled tojoin Alejo on the grass, shoving his hands into the pockets of hisjacket. "So what do you think? Just go through the front door?"
"I think we should scope the yard first.Could be traps, cameras, anything really."
"Fair enough. Let's go." He headed off, andAlejo caught up a moment later, huffing in annoyance.
Bobby hopped over the low chain link fencethat blocked off the backyard, and strode down what remained of anold gravel driveway. The backyard was overgrown, like it had beenleft to run wild over weeks rather than the mere days Bobby hadexpected. Strange when the front yard had looked pristine.
There wasn't much. A large patio withloungers and a firepit. An old shed in one corner, an even oldercar at the end of the driveway. Beyond the backyard was forest,right up against the fence and already encroaching.
"Where do you want to start?" Bobbyasked.
Chapter Nine
Alejo grimaced as he replied, "Let's get thecreepy shed out of the way. Just looking at it gives me theheebie-jeebies."
Bobby laughed. "Where does that word comefrom? Jones uses it a lot, too. It's delightful."
"I dunno, the woman at the corner storealways said it. Surprised you don't know, Mr. My Mother VomitedKnowledge Into Me."
