A Secret In Your Throat

Chapter 19

Frank threw Captain Kenny Andrews down the basement steps. He rolled to a stop at our feet, groaning. His face was bloody, his thinning, dark hair a mess.
The hate I felt at that moment for this man who had caused so much suffering was overwhelming. Before Gerard could stop me, I dragged him up by his jacket, and he stared at me with one open dark brown eye.
"Do you know why you're here, Captain?" I snarled the title in a sarcastic way. I wanted to tear his throat out right here, but we needed his information.
Gerard was calmer. He pulled up a chair and sat, one leg crossed over the other. So casual. With a great effort, I threw the captain down in front of Gerard, and went to stand behind him.
Frank, Ray and Mikey were blocking the door, looking menacing.
"If you want to survive, Captain... actually, do you mind if I call you Kenny? Captain just seems so formal."
The man spat blood out of his mouth, "Go to hell. You're going to kill me anyway."
"Why would we do that?" Gerard lied smoothly, "It would cause too many problems for us. Too many questions if you disappear. It's much better for everyone to get your information and let you live, don't you think?"
The captain looked suspiciously up at him, "Why would I believe that?"
Gerard shrugged, "It's much more convenient to take out your little friends, than to remove a prominent police officer. You can keep your little house and the little comforts you paid for with innocent lives. We just want the trafficking to stop."
The captain sat up a little, sneering, "Please. Nobody is innocent. Plenty of them are getting what they deserve."
I started forward, but Gerard grabbed my wrist. How they had this much self control when all I wanted to do was rip his head off was incredible. They were all so calm, and I felt like a feral animal.
"Kenny. Come on. This can be easy. We can take you back home. You can start doing the right things. We'll check in on you, but you can walk out of here. Just give us some names. They'd sell you out in a second, you know."
The captain stared around at us all. "Fine," he spat, "But take me home first."
"You're really not in any position to be making demands." Mikey said coldly from behind him.
The man sighed and looked up, "The coven in Tacoma that was destroyed - I assume by you - was small time. That was a small camp. Portland is where they go, to be redistributed all over the Pacific Northwest. There's a huge coven there running the rings. Some woman, calls herself Sable. If that's her real name, I'm the pope. That's all I know. I just arranged transport out of Seattle and from the corrections centers. They brought me payment."
Over his shoulder, Ray nodded at Gerard. Gerard turned and looked up at me, "He's all yours, my love."
The captain cursed, as though he'd always known he wouldn't survive this. He looked warily at me, at my small stature, as though he thought he could overpower me.
Then Frank said casually, "Try not to get blood on the piano, Rae," and the captain screamed as I picked him up by the jacket again.
He screamed a lot that night.
***
Mikey and Frank had taken what remained of the captain far away from us the night before to bury in the forest. Gerard and Ray had consented to cleaning the basement while I took a shower and threw my black outfit into the washer.
I stared at myself in the mirror, blood splattering my face and arms where my skin had been exposed. My grey eyes looked back at me, the color startling against the red. I wondered if the human person I had been would have hated me for how I'd made that man suffer, under the unfeeling gaze of four men who didn't life a finger to help him while I pulled him apart.
It didn't matter. I wasn't human. I was pleased with what I'd done. What he'd felt wasn't a fraction of the pain he'd caused. Humans disappeared so often now that nobody would likely bother to look for him.
I watched the blood-tinged water spin down the drain as I stepped into the steaming shower, indifferent to it. It was just like the dirt people washed from themselves.
I knew as I dressed in my cotton shorts and t-shirt that Gerard would be insatiable tonight. So would I. The suffering and ultimate death of evil people at our hands usually left us unable to keep control of ourselves for very long afterwards. It was like a stimulant. When we hunted as a group, the rest invariably left us when they had sated their thirst, knowing grins on their faces as Gerard and I would lock eyes.
I entered our room and though I knew he was behind the door, I stopped and stood with my back to him. He closed the door softly, but didn't press himself to me immediately as I expected. Instead, he brushed his fingers over my skin, just barely grazing me, my body melting beneath his touch.
His lips found the back of my neck, and he kissed to my collarbone, whispering against my skin, "You are a deity. I've never seen anything to equal you. Never."
My eyes closed and I leaned against him, my head falling back, "Keep going..." I breathed. His fingers brushed every inch of my body, pulling away my clothes and casting them aside as he went.
"I'm going to worship you until the sun comes up," he breathed, "And again tomorrow when it falls. And every night, for as long as we exist." He turned me around to face him, both of his hands gripping my waist as he moved to his knees. His eyes never left mine as his tongue dove into me.
I gripped his hair with a force that was close to violence, sighing out in pleasure, as the bliss overcame me.