Page 52 of Dark Stars
Alejo took a tiny bit of rabbit and set itin front of the mantis, who after a moment, took it. "Pretty surethey mostly eat bugs, but she seems pretty happy with that for now.You can go do your thing whenever you like, milady."
The mantis only continued to chill thereafter her snack, seemingly content simply to be.
Bobby poked around their supplies and wasdelighted to discover some instant coffee, even packets of creamand sugar. "Where did you filch all this?" There was an entirelarge ziplock of the stuff, even stirrers, with all manner ofshapes and brands. Tubes, packets, even fancy hard packaging likehe usually saw butter and some ketchup come in.
Alejo gave a little grin. "Hotel rooms,truck stops, wherever. Surprisingly useful stash."
"It is." Bobby made them coffee, and thenwalked around a bit just to stretch his legs. "I'm still annoyedthey got to me, but I guess it's a moot point now, save thatthey'll be ready for us at the next point."
Finished with his food, Alejo set the emptyplate aside for the ants and other insects that immediately swarmedit. "What if we didn't go to the next one in the circle? It wouldbe more walking, but what if we cut across? Going with the clockthing, we've destroyed six, seven, and eight. What if we just saidfuck it and went all the way back to, I dunno, five orsomething?"
"Chaotic, I like it. Not really how you'resupposed to break these sorts of things. It causes a lot ofinstability, but it's better than just walking into trap aftertrap. If we're going to do that, though, we're going to needtransportation. That much walking is impossible, and increasinglyunsafe anyway."
Alejo brightened. "Four wheelers?"
"Four wheelers," Bobby agreed. "Stay here,don't leave the circle, I'll be back with the goods shortly."
"Will do."
Bobby kissed him, quick and sharp, and thenslipped into the darkness and through it to where he knew a localwas selling his four wheelers. Not even thirty minutes later, hewas headed back, the proud owner of two four wheelers, one anobnoxiously bright blue, the other a truly impressive limegreen.
"Oh, my god, best day ever!" Alejo said."Can I have the green one?"
"How could I ever dare refuse my beloved?"Bobby said dryly. "Though I worry I've been replaced, judging bythat gleam in your eye."
Alejo giggled, abandoning his examination ofhis new toy to come over and kiss Bobby soundly. "If I recall,there is a blow job in want of repaying."
"Aren't we a little bus—"
"Shoosh."
Bobby shooshed. Except for a soft grunt ashe was pushed up against a tree. And a flood of praise andshameless begging as Alejo sucked his cock like it was a final examand sixty percent of his grade. Hollowed his cheeks out, worked histongue on the underside, took him all the way down with a skillthat fucking high end pros would admire. His hair was as soft asever, thick and almost fluffy, as Bobby gripped it without pullingpainfully. "Fuck— Alejo— fuck—" was all the warning he could managebefore he was spilling down that warm, tight throat.
When he could function again, more or less,he pulled Alejo to his feet and kissed the taste of himself rightoff that wicked mouth. "Oh, to have the time to fuck you through amattress and straight to the floor."
Alejo laughed. "Soon, hopefully. Once we getrid of this damned circle, surely that's the end of theproblem?"
"Yeah, should be. My relatives will only bedisrupted so many times before they grow bored or too irritated tokeep bothering. We can finally relax, focus on us."
"Learn what it really means to be a child ofdark stars," Alejo said in a slightly wistful tone. "It's notalways this level of crazy, right?"
"Rarely, I promise. The last time I dealtwith something like this was at least two hundred years ago. Myrelatives interfere across many planets and many planes, and forgetas many schemes as they instigate. If we'd noticed this six monthslater, it's possible everything would have been long over and donewith. There really is never any telling."
"Well, that's family all right. Mine aren'tall the size of planets and a bajillion years old, is the only realdifference."
Bobby drew him into one last kiss, thenreluctantly drew away. "Come on, off to location five. Hopefully itwill be easy to deal with—easier than this last one, anyway. Eight,I guess, if we're really leaning into the clock thing now.
"I'm so excited we have wheels now."
"I think I'm afraid that you're so excitedabout zipping through the woods at high speeds. Please don't getclotheslined by a low hanging branch of something."
"Silly monster, that's what protectionspells are for," Alejo replied with a scoff.
He cast the spells like he'd done it athousand times, which he probably had, given the familiarity withwhich he operated the four wheeler. "Normally we ride through muchmore open areas, but we've taken ours on vacation to forests andmountains and stuff. There's not many terrains I haven't driven onat this point. Snow, mostly, which has its own toy."
Then he was gone, leaving Bobby scramblingto catch up, both laughing all the while. He'd programmed thecoordinates into their respective GPS systems, a nice perk of thefour wheelers he'd bought.
He really didn't like Alejo in the lead, asthat put him closest to danger, but he knew better than to saysomething like that out loud—and Alejo could handle himself, he'dmore than proven that. Without him and his bug army, Bobby wouldnot be as well off as he was. Probably not dead, but not all thatclose to alive either.
