He locked up the 550 and walked with Mr. D across a decaying asphalt stretch to a door that was very sturdy, considering the shape the mill was in. Thanks to the light snow that was falling, the setting seemed like something out of an ad for quaint Vermont vacations, as long as you didn’t look too closely at the sagging roofline or the ragged siding.
The symphath was already inside. Lash knew it sure as he felt the flurries on his cheeks and heard loose stones crunch under his combat boots.
Mr. D opened the door and Lash stepped inside first to show he didn’t need a subordinate to clear the way. The interior of the mill was nothing but a lot of cold air, the rectangular building having long ago been stripped of anything useful.
The symphath was waiting down at the far end, near the massive wheel that still sat in the river like an old fat woman in a cooling bath.
“My friend, how nice to see you once more,” the king said, that snake voice rippling along the rafters.
Lash walked over to the guy nice and slow, taking his time, checking and double-checking the shadows thrown by the glass windows. Nothing but the king. This was good.
“Have you considered my proposal?” the king said.
Lash was not in a fucking-around mood. After the shit with the Domino’s delivery guy the night before and the fact that there was another drug dealer to pick off in about an hour, now wasn’t the time to play.
“Yeah. And you know what? I’m not sure I need to do you any favors. I’m thinking either you give me what I want, or…maybe I just send my men north to slaughter you and all the other freaks up there.”
That flat, pale face broke into a serene smile. “But how would that work for you? It would be destroying the very tools with which you wish to best your enemy. Not a logical step for any ruler to take.”
Lash’s cock tingled at the tip, respect turning him on, though he refused to acknowledge the fact. “You know, I wouldn’t think the king would need help. Why can’t you just do the killing yourself?”
“There are extenuating circumstances, and benefits to making it appear as if the demise occurred outside of my influence. You will learn, over time, that machinations in the background are at times far more effective than those you conduct in full view of your population.”
Point taken, though again, Lash wasn’t going to give props.
“I’m not as young as you think,” he said instead. Fuck it, he’d aged about a billion years in the last four months.
“And you are not as old as you believe. But that is another conversation for a different time.”
“I’m not looking for a therapist.”
“Which is a shame. I’m rather good at getting into the heads of others.”
Yeah, Lash could see that. “This target of yours. Is it a male or a female.”
“Would it matter?”
“Not in the slightest.”
The symphath positively beamed. “It is a male. And as I said, there are unusual circumstances.”
“How so?”
“He will be difficult to get to. His private guard is rather fierce.” The king floated over to a window and looked out. After a moment, his head turned as an owl’s would, rotating on the spine until it was nearly facing backward, and then his white eyes flared red for a moment. “Do you think you can handle such a penetration?”
“Are you a homo?” Lash blurted.
The king laughed. “You mean, do I prefer lovers of my same sex?”
“Yeah.”
“Would that make you uncomfortable?”
“No.” Yes, because it would mean that he kinda sorta had the hots for a guy who swung that way.
“You don’t lie very well,” the king murmured. “But it will come with age.”
Fuck that. “And I don’t think you’re as powerful as you think you are.”
When the sexual speculation disappeared Lash knew he’d hit a sore spot. “Beware the waters of confrontation-”
“Spare me the two-bit, fortune-cookie bullshit, Your Highness. If you were filling out that robe with a good set of balls, you’d get rid of this guy yourself.”
Serenity returned to the king’s face, as if Lash had just proven his inferiority with the outburst. “Yet instead I’m having someone else take care of it for me. Far more sophisticated, although I don’t expect you to understand that.”
Lash dematerialized right in front of the guy and locked his palms around that slender throat. With a single, brutal thrust, he forced the king up against the wall.
Their eyes locked, and as Lash felt a probe into his mind, he instinctively shut the entryway through his frontal lobe.
“You’re not unlocking my trunk there, asshole. Sorry.”
The king’s stare grew red as blood. “No.”
“No what?”
“I do not prefer lovers of my own sex.”
It was the perfect shoe to drop, of course: the implication being that Lash was staying close because he was the one who liked cock out of the pair of them. He let go and stalked around.
The king’s voice was now less snakelike and more factual. “You and I are rather well matched. I believe we shall both get what we want from this alliance.”
Lash turned and faced the guy. “This male, the one you want dead, where do I find him.”
“The timing must be correct. Timing…is everything.”
Rehvenge watched Ehlena put her clothes back on, and though getting her back into that uniform wasn’t exactly what he wanted, the show of her bending over and slowly smoothing her stockings up her leg wasn’t half- bad.
Not. At. All.
She laughed as she picked her bra up and twirled it around her finger. “Can I put this on now?”
“Absolutely.”
“You going to make me take my time again?”
“I just figured there was no rush on the hose.” He smiled like the wolf he was feeling like. “I mean, those things run, don’t they-Oh, fuck me…”
Ehlena didn’t wait for him to finish talking, but arched her back and pulled the bra around her torso. The little shimmy she worked as she reclasped it in the front made him pant…and that was before she drew the straps over her shoulders, leaving the cups wedged under her breasts.
She came over to him. “I’ve forgotten how to work it. Can you help?”
Rehv growled and pulled her in close, sucking one nipple into his mouth and working the other with his thumb. Just as she gasped, he flipped the cups into place.
“I’m glad to be your lingerie engineer, but, you know, it looked better off you.” As he jogged his eyebrows at her, her laugh was so free and easy his heart stopped. “I like that sound.”
“And I like making it.”
She stepped into her uniform and pulled it up and then fastened its buttons.
“Pity,” he said.
“You want to know something silly? I wore this even though I don’t have to go to work tonight.”
“Did you? Why?”
“I wanted to keep things professional, and yet here I am, thrilled that it didn’t work out that way.”
He stood up and took her into his arms, not worried at all about being totally naked now. “Count me in on the thrilled part.”
He kissed her softly, and as they parted, she said, “Thank you for a lovely evening.”
Rehv tucked her hair behind her ears. “What are you doing tomorrow?”
“Working.”
“When do you get off?”
“Four.”
