The Stains Beneath Our Skin [mxm] ✔

38.2 | ... Beneath My Skin

The sleazebag didn't look great, actually. Impeccably groomed, framed there in the doorway, that short fur coat again that Casper was beginning to think was a favourite, but something in that predatory grin was ... off. He looked hollow, and not hollow of emotion and humanity, because he'd looked like that last time, but like some essence was missing that gave his cold-fish eyes their spark instead of really just being like ... cold fish.

Casper hadn't realised Levi was actually kinda short. Not a load taller than Casper, who was five-six on a good day.

Not that it did a thing to stop the cold lurch that went through Casper's gut though. None at all. Nothing to make him forget how sometimes, he still woke up choking with that night plastered across his mind. Lizard grin with meat and fingers and sauce dripping from between his teeth.

He'd never actually done that bit with balloons, had he?

Blind nausea surged up Casper's throat, and gasping, he twisted his fingers through the back of Cain's shirt. Goosebumps lifted on his arms. Rot saturated the icy air.

Where was Ella?

Cain lifted his hand and Levi's dead-eye stare broke. Slick laughter burst from his lips as he pulled the shop door closed behind him. "Ah, ah, touchy, Killer. No need for that. I'm not here for you."

"Get out." Cain's voice was nothing but the coarse grit of bones. "I'll kill you outside."

Levi kissed his teeth. The heavy gold of his rings glistened as he bobbed his fingers idle through the air. "No way to greet such an old friend, darling. I'm sure we used to get on famously. And don't think I can't see you there, Cassie." Levi tilted his head, a little flare finally lifting in his eyes, and winked. "I missed—"

"Don't you fucking say a word to him." Cain shoved Casper further behind him, his lips drawn back from his teeth. Just from the little glimpse of him, he looked a terror. Dark hair lifting around his face like a cold wave flooded over his head. "Not a bloody fucking word. Now get out the fucking door, or I'll kill you twice as slow once I've thrown you out."

But Levi didn't flinch. Not even at the flicks of rotten sorcery at his throat. You almost couldn't see through the idle stance and the weaving fingers.

"I told you, Killer. I'm not here for you. Truce for the night and I won't kill precious Cassie while your back's—"

Cain's chuckle slithered through the air. A grim one, as foul and rotten as the taste of his sorcery. With each exhale, the air grew thicker, drenched in a cold so deep Casper shuddered with it. Pressure built against his ears.

"Wrong life for that." Cain pressed Casper back again, his palm on Casper's arm death cold. "The wrong one entirely. If you think you've been dining gourmet, Levi, I've been dining prime."

At that loaded word, a twitch went through Levi's face and he shifted his weight onto his back foot. But even now, none of his burnt aura touched the air. Casper would be able to tell.

After all, he had a nose for it now.

"Well, Levi? Which is it going to be?"

"I told you," Levi repeated through gritted teeth. "I'm not here to do a damn thing to you or Cassie. I just want to sit down with some food."

A cold laugh rung through the air. Casper leant against Cain's grip, pressing close to his back and peeking up at his face, and the sight put a shiver down his spine.

Death. That's all there was. Death on his white horse, the slow, steady claps of his hooves against an earth already laid silent and low for his scythe. Nothing but scathing coldness flashed behind his eyes and that wide, barren grin.