Tarot: the Fool- Paranormal M/M Romance

Chapter Nineteen

David

I must have fallen to sleep, because suddenly there was the sound of a key in the front door lock, a shuffling of feet, and Her Majesty's loud meows from my chest as Zin's voice wafted across the room, shushing her, trying to stay quiet as he moved towards the couch. 

I lay prone, as if I hadn't been woken, and listened as he scooped the cat up, whispering to her to keep her quiet, and began to move towards the kitchen. I could see the light coming in from the windows around my flat, so I knew it was early morning. When I cracked my eye open, keeping my breaths deep and even, the clock read 6:26am. I sat up, trying to stay quiet so I didn't alarm Zin, and all of my promises from the night flew out the window when I caught a glimpse of him. 

His hair was tousled, as if from sleep, dear God I hoped it was from sleep, his face blotchy and a little... swollen, somehow? His eyes were red-rimmed, and his lips were bitten red. 

And he was covered neck to feet, because he was wearing one of Ryder's metal band t-shirts, and a pair of flannel pajama pants that were ten sizes too big. The pants were rolled up almost a dozen times, but they still dragged around his feet as he walked, and the shirt hung to below his knees, hung off his shoulder, and draped him like a tent.

"Where the hell were you!?" I growled, standing and stalking towards him. I tried to ignore the fact that he cowered against the wall when I moved towards him, or the way his eyes shuttered and fear washed across his face like a wave. 

If I had ever had any doubts Zin had been physically abused on a regular basis, they were squashed with the way he reacted to my anger. 

"I... I-I was... Ryder!" he mumbled, unable to even put a full sentence together. 

"You spent the entire night with Ryder?" I growled, taking a few steps forward and towering over him, my anger consuming me. I could see him beginning to panic with my boxing him in, but my anger won out over my concern of him. "What the fuck, Zin?! You knew you had to work this morning. How dare you—"

"I'm not... I don't belong to you!" Zin screamed, his hands jumping up to clench into fists in front of his chest, his feet moving into a fighting stance. He used the fists to shove me back, and I let him, flinching at the way he immediately fell back into a perfect fighting stance. 

A proper fighting stance. And he was holding his fists like he actually knew how to throw a punch. 

"I'm not your property! You don't... don't own me! I've been owned before, David, and I won't do it again! Not even... n-not even for you!"

I was shocked, to say the least, at his outburst. I took a few more steps back, my hands rising, palms up, in a placating gesture, but it didn't calm Zin in the least. He started forward, his steps sure, but his eyes streaming tears and his voice shaking and broken.

Dammit, I had done that. 

I had scared him so much, I had forced him to feel as though he had to defend himself. Against me. The man who wouldn't raise a hand against him if he were beating the shit out of me. 

A few more steps back and I was the one pressed up against the wall, staring down into eyes lit up with fury, soaked with tears, and broken beyond comprehension. 

"I won't fall under the control of another Lyle. I-I won't do it. No, don't—!" he cried when I tried to raise my hand, reaching for him to try to calm him. "Don't touch me!"

He ran around me and at the door so quickly, I only processed that was where he was heading when the door slammed behind him, and his feet were pounding down the stairs outside. 

**** **Mumbles * Stupid David... *mumble ******