Changing Fortunes

Part 16

Apparently, Angelo had a plan because his and Weasel's eyes met, then they traded glances with Balint, who nodded.

Only Cam couldn't tell what the fuck was going on. Angelo hadn't thought enough of Cam to clue him in on things and Cam couldn't hear a word of what they were saying. Shit, he didn't even see Weasel or Angelo's lips move so it could be that they all were communicating telepathically. Cam had no idea. All he knew was that the three of them had effectively left him out of the loop and he was furious.

Fuck it, they could plan whatever the fuck they wanted, he was getting his gun. He reached inside his waistband.

Balint grabbed his hand. "Don't Cam," he said gently.

"Why the hell not?"

"Please, Cam, let us handle this." He let Cam's hand go.

Us. Funny, Cam had thought he and Balint were "us" but it was becoming very obvious that wasn't the case. It was also obvious that Balint was trying to protect Cam because he believed that Cam couldn't protect himself.

Cam had never felt so useless. His hand dropped to his side.

"Look Cam," Angelo suddenly said, "I'm only gonna say this once so listen carefully. We can smell three of them and they're probably loaded for bear. Your gun won't help. We can move much faster than you can and our speed will give us an advantage you can't match. When we finally reach Sarin himself, then yeah, put a fucking bullet in his brain, you'll get your chance there and then. But not now. We're gonna make these kills. Not you."

On the one hand, Angelo was saying Cam was helpless. On the other hand, he seemed to be saving his pride. Either way, it seemed like Angelo was actually looking out for Cam. He didn't know which was worse: having Angelo's contempt or Angelo's concern.

Cam could see Sarin's men now. Three big beefy muscleheads. One was brandishing a huge knife. One had a Geir: a gun that let out so many rounds that its lack of preciseness didn't matter, one had to hit. The biggest guy had no weapons. He didn't need them. His hamhock hands could easily tear someone apart.

Fuck.

"Well, well, well, what have we here, Lukas?" the guy with the knife taunted.

"Looks like two mutant freaks and two traitors, Marko." The guy with the Geir answered, grinning evilly. 'Two traitors who are about to die."

The biggest guy leered at Angelo. "Remember me?"

"Ragnarok," Angelo said cheerfully. "An amoeba has a bigger brain than you."

They knew each other? Then Cam realized that Ragnarok was probably one of the men who'd barged into the Nocturne when Ardoin wouldn't hand it over to Sarin. More than likely, Angelo had been the one to deal with them, not Ardoin. Ardoin didn't seem to be the type to waste his time when he could have his lackey handle things.

Lukas aimed the Geir at Balint. "You shouldn't have double crossed Sarin like that, kid. The boss don't like it when people fuck with him."

"He never paid us," Balint replied calmly. "And he never intended to pay us. Therefore, his contract is null and void."

Good old Balint, a businessman above all else.

But then his words sank in. Sarin never intended to pay?

"Sarin is just a sore loser," Angelo sneered. "Or just a loser."

Marko laughed. "You think because you managed to take down the Black Guard that you're hot shit? That was a cake walk compared to what we're gonna do to you all."

"Did you see what happened to the Guard, asshole?" Cam asked. "What makes you so sure the same thing won't happen to your sorry asses?"

"It just might," Weasel murmured with a diabolical smile.

Then everything happened in a blur of motion.

"You little shit, you bit me!" Cam heard Ragnarok bellow.

Angelo's arm was looped around Ragnarok's waist, pinning it to his side, the other hand had yanked his head back, exposing his throat where Angelo had bitten him. "You're lucky that's all I did," Angelo muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Cam and Ragnarok to hear.

The dark-eyed boy seemed highly amused at Ragnarok's useless struggles. "I'd save my energy if I was you, dearheart. You're gonna need it. And don't look for the cavalry to come rushing in. They've been detained." Angelo grinned nastily. "Forever."

That was when Cam noticed that Weasel and Balint were gone. So were Marko and Lukas. Something told Cam that unlike Angelo, the two other Nightchildren didn't stop at biting them. In fact, Cam wondered why Angelo had.

Angelo turned to Cam. "You know where Sarin's place of residence is?"

Cam shrugged. "Well kept secret. Balint and I only knew the drop off point."

"I had a feeling about that, but no matter, I'm sure sweet Ragnarok knows exactly where it is," Angelo purred. "Don't you sweet thing?"

Ragnarok laughed nastily. "I'm not telling you jack." Then he frowned, looking puzzled, then frustrated. "What the fuck?"

"Something wrong, sunshine?" Angelo drawled, his eyes glinting with malice.

"What the fuck is going on?" Ragnarok demanded.

Angelo smirked. "I just took a precaution to ensure you can't contact Sarin telepathically for a long while. And by now, your buddies are just about dead." Angelo leaned over and licked the blood that was still trickling from Ragnarok's throat in a way that was both seductive and threatening.

The bite, Cam realized. Somehow, it cancelled out telepathy. That was handy. And apparently, it also had some anesthetizing effect because Ragnok's eyes glazed over, closing, his body slumping against Angelo's arm.

And speaking of telepathy….

"Why don't we just read his mind?" Cam asked Angelo. Then he realized he was presumptive in assuming that Angelo was a telepath. "I can do it if you can't," he added.

Angelo gave Cam a withering glance. "Please, honeychild," he said with contempt, "I could slip into your mind, rummage through every memory you've ever had and see deep into your soul and you'd never even know it. In fact, I have. And so has Balint."

"You're lying," Cam growled.

"And you're lying to yourself. You think it was just a coincidence that Balint came running to you after you decided you wanted him? We were reading you, malaka."

The idea that Balint was peeking into Cam's head to check his intentions pissed the fuck out of Cam. Angelo doing it was bad enough but Balint? How many other times was Balint secretly reading Cam's thoughts? Between that and Balint's little nudges of Cam's will, he was beginning to wonder if he could trust his partner.

And that was exactly why Angelo told him.

Oh no. Cam was not gonna let Angelo fuck with his head like that. Cam would have a talk with Balint later, when they were both alone and preferably, after they made love. Now, he was gonna step back and deal with the situation at hand. "Good, then you read him," Cam snapped at Angelo.

"As tempting as that sounds, I'm sure Sarin has placed all types of landmines in Ragnarok's feeble little brain and I'm not about to trip them off by going anywhere near it. No, there are other ways of getting the darling to talk." Angelo smiled evilly. "Fun ways." Angelo's grip changed; his hand moving from Ragnarok's waist down to his belly. "Wake up, dim-dim."

Angelo's other hand released Ragnarok's hair, only to cover his mouth. Then Cam saw Angelo's fingers press down hard and forced himself to look as the other boy's nails dug in deep and blood rapidly soaked through Ragnarok's shirt.

Angelo's hand didn't quite muffle Ragnarok's scream.

"You really don't want to piss me off," Angelo snarled at Ragnarok. "Now, swallow that scream or I'll do it for you." He bared fully exposed fangs at Ragnarok, his eyes glowing red like the fires of hell. "Get me?"

Even if he wasn't shaking, his nonsensical gibbering and the stain quickly spreading through the front of the crotch of his pants told Cam that to say Ragnarok was scared was a huge understatement.

He was fucking petrified.

Angelo's nostrils flared. "Pity to waste all this spice but having you so terrified that you're incoherent won't help, I'm afraid. I'd prefer sugar, but I'll settle for just fearful enough to make you mildly spicy and more cooperative." Angelo glanced briefly at Ragnarok and the man instantly relaxed a little, still sort of tense but not as much as before.

Sugar? Spice? What the fuck was Angelo babbling about?

Then he remembered what Angelo had said about him and Radu having sex with Cam to "sweeten" him up. Sugar was sweet but Angelo seemed to be implying that fear was "spicing" Ragnarok up. Like seasoning food.

And to Angelo, both Ragnarok and Cam were.

"That's fucking nauseating," Cam spat at Angelo.

"Balint doesn't think so," Angelo taunted. "He was sweetening szeretos whenever you were fucking around on him. If you think he didn't taste any of it, you're dumber than I thought, idiot."

Cam understood that Angelo was purposely trying to disgust him, to shove his nature in Cam's face. But he caught the unspoken words. Judge me, Weasel and Radu? Then judge Balint. We're the same.

And since he'd already decided he wasn't gonna judge Balint, he realized he couldn't judge Angelo either. That didn't mean Cam was gonna give Angelo the satisfaction of a reaction to his baiting. Instead he asked in a bored voice, "You gonna find out the information we need or what?"

A flash of irritation flared in Angelo's black eyes but only fleetingly. "Sure thing, lover." Angelo turned to him, removing his hand from Ragnarok's mouth. "Where is Sarin's humble abode?"

Ragnarok began to shake again. "I can't tell you that, he'll kill me!"

Angelo laughed. "In order to do that, sport, you'd have to leave here alive. Which, sorry but you're not doing. You see, it's like this. I can make your death quick and painless or I can make it so agonizing you'll be begging to pass out. Sarin's murderous intentions shouldn't even be a concern to your sorry ass at this point. My mercy should be." His grip on Ragnarok's stomach tightened. "Do we understand each other?"

Ragnarok nodded with a grunt of pain.

"Good. Now answer my question. Where the fuck will we find your boss?"

"About a mile from here," Ragnarok answered.

Nice and vague. Too vague for Angelo because his other hand wrapped around Ragnarok's neck. "One more chance," he hissed. "Stop fucking around and tell me exactly where Sarin is." He squeezed hard, causing Ragnarok to gasp for air. "Now!"

"I-I'm not so g-good with directions," Ragnarok stammered.

"Try," Angelo growled.

"Through the woods," Ragnarok began.

Angelo rolled his eyes. "And?" he prompted impatiently.

"A left, then a right, then straight until you get to the gates."

"There, now wasn't that easy?" Angelo smiled sweetly. "Funny how you can do almost anything when your life depends on it, can't you, sweetling." He tightened his hold and pushed Ragnarok's head back. "But this is getting boring. Game over," Angelo whispered, his tongue running over his lips in a way that was as sexy as it was vulgar. Then he flashed Cam a wicked grin. "Wanna watch?"

Cam's flesh crawled at the look in Angelo's eyes. The eyes of a hungry animal. Nothing even remotely human. The thought of watching Angelo gorge himself on Ragnarok's blood and flesh made his insides roil but he knew a dare when he saw one. "Why the fuck not?"

Surprise briefly crossed over Angelo's pretty face before it was replaced by a smile that terrified Cam as much as it turned him on. Feral and lusty at the same time. "Don't just watch, my sweet. Share with me."

Cam stared at him. "Share? You mean Share this kill?"

Angelo laughed. "Yeah, but not how you mean. Drop your shield and Share Cam. Share the pleasure and the high from this kill. Let yourself get swept away. Share with me as a Sangsue would. You can't even imagine how good it'll make you feel."

"But I'm not Sangsue," Cam pointed out. "At least, not enough for it to matter."

"Oh? Does your blood not react to mine? Did Radu and my blood not heat yours to a boil?"

"You know damned well it did," Cam muttered. "So?"

"So," Angelo mimicked, "I'm not a bloodline snob like Radu. I don't care how much Sangsue blood is in your bloodline. Makes no difference to me. All that does is that you are Sangsue. One of my blood. And you're an empath. Why cheat yourself, Cam?" Angelo whispered seductively. "Don't you want to drown in ecstasy?"

If Cam didn't know better, he'd have said that Angelo was using his nature in a different way. Before it was to shock, to bait Cam. Now it was a way of flirting. And Cam had to admit, he was intrigued.

He dropped his shielding and almost immediately, Angelo's hunger burned inside Cam like a hundred tiny fires. Fires that were rapidly spreading through Cam's body, consuming everything in its wake.

"Ride the hunger, Cam," Angelo murmured. "Ride the roller coaster and experience the extreme pleasure of having that hunger sated. Let the rush of Ragnarok's fear fill you like liquid speed. Be what you are, Cam."

"And what is that?"

"Don't question. Feel. Surrender." Angelo's lips brushed against Ragnarok's neck. "Give in." His upper lip curled and his fangs came down, sinking deeply into Ragnarok's throat.

As Angelo fed upon Ragnarok, Cam's senses were instantly flooded with Angelo's ecstasy, riding high on a crest of euphoria; so wired he was practically flying. And as Ragnarok grew more and more terrified, his terror only increased the pleasure, until it was so intoxicating that Cam was almost drunk on it.

And Angelo was as high as if he'd taken a drug but Cam realized, for Angelo and Weasel… and Balint, blood was a drug. Only it wasn't just the blood. It was the emotions laced in it that gave it that kick. Without the sugar or spice, it'd be just like drinking water.

Just when Cam thought it couldn't get any better, he was carried to the heights of orgiastic pleasure, Angelo's blood fueled passion and arousal filled Cam as intensely as if it was his own, amplifying the rapture Cam had already been feeling from Angelo's desire.

It was like drugs and sex and every possible kind of bliss all wrapped up in one cocktail.

Then all at once it stopped and Cam became aware of Ragnarok's drained body slipping from Angelo's hands and falling in a collapsed heap to the ground.

Angelo's eyes had that familiar glitter, only they were half-lidded with a lust that had nothing to do with blood. He drew closer to Cam." I doubt Balint and Weasel Shared kills but if they were together, I can guarantee they're Sharing other things. That's what Sangsue do after a kill." Angelo's lips curled into a suggestive smile.

Cam was reeling from all of the concentrated emotion he'd just been barraged with and now Angelo's arousal was bouncing off Cam's in that weird feedback that he was almost positive Balint was feeling and he knew the empathy was just another ability his partner had never told Cam he had.

Balint was right, he'd never lied to Cam. He just never told him the whole truth.

And Cam just wasn't sure that he hated Angelo anymore. Sure, the boy was obnoxious and loved to push Cam's buttons. But he cared about Balint. He even seemed to care about Cam to a point. How could Cam hate him? Besides, whether he hated Angelo or not was irrelevant because the chemistry between them was so strong; much stronger than it had been with Weasel. Perhaps it was because hatred took passion. Cam really didn't know and at this point, he really didn't care.

Angelo's hand cupped Cam's cheek and Cam instantly noticed something. "You're warmer!"

"The blood warms me up. Gets me hot." He grinned. "In more ways than one."

"I noticed."

Angelo laughed softly. "Yeah, you would."

Cam wasn't even gonna pretend anymore. "This will be the second time I'll taste blood on your lips."

"But far from the last," Angelo whispered before kissing Cam on the mouth.

Angelo's kiss was filled with enough passion to make Cam's toes curl, as hot as his flesh. As the dark-eyed boy's tongue snaked into Cam's mouth, he realized that while he was not Sangsue enough to have a taste for blood, he didn't mind it. In fact, the metallic sweetness of it turned him on because he was already associating it with sex.

And sex would forevermore be associated with blood.

Cam's knees quickly turned to liquid as Angelo's hands slipped inside Cam's coat and underneath his shirt, light caresses that reverberated through every nerve ending in his body. "How do you and Weasel do that?" he asked, gasping.

"You mean this?" Angelo teased.

Angelo's fingers were barely touching Cam's skin, feathery brushes that pulsated throughout his body, each sensation building upon the other until Cam was nothing but one big erogenous zone, sensitive to even the lightest of touches.

"Shit," Cam exclaimed as if it was a prayer, "with all that you don't need to actually have sex with someone, do you?"

"No. I don't have to, but I love to."

Then he proceeded to show Cam just how much.

Angelo's hands worked their magic; sparks seemed to fly with every caress and before Cam knew it, Angelo was unbuttoning Cam's coat and sliding it off his shoulders.

Cam reached for Angelo, only to have his hands kissed and gently but definitely pushed away.

This was getting old. He glared at the other boy. "What is it with you? Are you too good for me or something?"

"Don't," Angelo warned, his dark eyes gleaming.

"Don't what? Look, Angelo, I don't know what mindfucking you think you're doing, but I'm not buying it." Cam reached down and grabbed his coat, practically shoving his arms through it.

"If that's how you want it," Angelo said in that sing song tone of his.

"No, that's how you want it," Cam muttered.

"You're right though," Angelo murmured, "I don't have to have sex with you. I don't even have to touch you to get you off, sweetling…."

Cam saw Angelo's eyes unfocus. Then he felt Angelo's tongue licking him, his mouth sucking at Cam's chest, then moving down between Cam's legs where Angelo swallowed Cam's still rigid cock.

It's Angelo's trick, Cam kept telling himself, Angelo's Gift. It's not real. His mouth isn't really there. But his body didn't care, it was responding, his ecstasy increasing until Cam came hard and fast.

"It's really much better physically," Angelo smirked.

"You fucking bastard," Cam growled.

"Actually, we both are. We kill our mothers in childbirth."

Cam stared at Angelo looking for a sign, any sign, that he was taunting Cam, that he was lying.

He found none.

But he wasn't surprised because he knew Angelo was telling the truth.

He could feel it.

<< Chapter 15 Chapter 17 >>

Last updated 2/13/03

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