The Stains Beneath Our Skin [mxm] ✔

32.1 | Ostrich Feathers

Gripping the edge of the dumpster with one white-knuckled hand, Casper peeked beneath his arm at the mouth of the alley.

Two figures stood against the bright lights beyond, and if it hadn't been for the flickering neon glow of the shop beside them, he might not have been able to see their faces. Sharp against sweet, and the girl walked like she'd float on water as she crossed to the outstretched arm of the man and settled against his side. Both were done up all skimpy for clubbing, and the man wore the same fur jacket cropped at his waist as he had in the picture, a touch of bizarre that had Casper's head spinning.

With halos of neon above their heads they looked like angels. The ones that had fallen with glee.

She replied to him in the same language, soft and floaty and sweet, and Casper looked back at the floor, grounding himself in the vomit splashed over his shoes while his mind spiralled.

Oh my god, I'm too fucked up for this. This isn't real. No way this is fucking real.

Footsteps echoed down the alley, sharp in a way they had no right to be against the roar. She walked beside him, but only one set sounded.

No pretending he hadn't seen them – all that ostrich putting your head in the sand and pretending they weren't there shit – so Casper glowered still bent over like he was about to vomit. Well, he was about to vomit, so not much pretending there.

Levi leant against the dumpster beside him, fingers pushing back through the side of his slick-back hair and sex oozing from the cock of his hips. Ella disappeared out of his line of sight, silent, and Casper tensed. How many seconds until the blade in his back?

"Hey there, pretty boy." Levi spoke Casper's language with just the same salacious lilt as the other one, a voice like he had Casper's dick in his hand while he whispered in his ear. A voice like Casper didn't want him to be there. "Been sleeping well lately?"

Sounded like a loaded question. Went straight over Casper's head, he didn't have to fake that. Cain's words rung in his mind, now, and they made him cringe, but they made him think, no matter that just thinking about Cain made him want to scratch his fucking brains out.

If he was going to get out of this, he was going to lie his way out like the manipulative scum he was.

"Can't you leave a kid to hate himself in peace? I didn't stand here throwing up in this fucking alley for company."

A giggle, right beside him. Right in his fucking ear. Casper jumped and swore, staggering back through the gap between them.

"He doesn't remember, vithr." Ella slipped her arms around Levi's waist and got up on her tiptoes to rest her chin on his shoulder. His hand settled with nauseating possessiveness on her ass. "He never remembers, you know that."

You never remember me.

Casper swallowed bile and let his feet stumble back up the alley. "Fuck this," he slurred. It was already there but he really laid it on. "Fucking nuts."

"Cassie, darling, I don't think I said you could leave." Shit. "Did I say he could leave, sweetheart?"

"No, vithr."

"No, I didn't think so. Now come back, Cassie, darling. Be a good boy."

What the fuck did he think Casper was going to do? Turn around? His spine crawled as he forced himself to stagger, made his feet catch on the cracked concrete. The entrance loomed. Two more steps. Flashing headlights and neon and the safety of crammed urban hell.

Just a little more.

Hot air rushed past him. A lash closed around his throat – searing fucking hot. Casper barely kept his feet as it hauled him back. Then didn't. One last yank dropped him on his ass at Levi's feet.