Page 53 of Envious Of Fire
Raya’s eyes are alight. She doesn’t blink. The certainty in Kaleb’s words seem to ground her at once.
“I … almost believe you,” she whispers, amazed.
11.
Countless Other Nights to Play.
—·—
Kyle sucks his tongue as he wipes down the counter. The bar is quiet, only three at a table in the back, no one at the front counter, a morose tune lazily playing from the jukebox.
It’s only been two days since Lazarus paid them a visit, yet it feels like it was weeks ago. Like the events at the House of Vegasyn, everything is pushed away from Kyle’s mind, pushed far away, as if to deny any of these things actually happening, as if Lazarus poses no further threat, as if Jessica was just a dream, as if Tristan is still dead and gone.
How much longer can he keep pretending he’s okay?
“Nah, I’m fine, Leland’s got me,” says the café owner from down the street, who is usually here drinking away his marital woes, but instead seems focused on the TV and whatever game is rerunning at this hour. “Nah, really, no refill, said I’m fine.”
His eyes shift, barely looking at Kyle, his fingers drumming anxiously along the rim of his glass. His heart rate is increased. Perspiration on his palms. Kyle senses these things, too.
“Alright,” says Kyle, then moves away.
And his eyes catch two others in the back, the curly-haired sisters who run the bakery. They look up, spot him, then look away and resume whispering to each other.
Kyle washes a glass, tries not to sense their fear as well.
The glass snaps in his hands. Shards dropping into the sink.
When he looks up, everyone else is looking at him, silent, wide-eyed—even a man in the corner booth Kyle had assumedwas asleep. Is this something Kyle has been ignoring? That maybe the lovely citizens of Nowhere aren’t quite as comfortable with him as previously thought? That maybe after the night just a week ago when he confessed his secret to everyone here in town, people have gotten to talking and spreading rumors?
“No, Kyle, you’re overthinking,” says Cade over the top of her laptop. “If there were rumors bouncing around, I’d be the first to hear. Everyonelovesyou. Well, except for maybe the chief,” she quickly adds, “but he doesn’t love anyone except his Jer Bear. Oh, while I’ve got you …” She spins her laptop around, lifts it up, puts the screen next to her face. “Do we look alike? This woman and I? Even a tiny itty-bitty bit? She shares my gran’s maiden name.”
No matter what Cade says, Kyle can’t shake the feeling. He sits in the park long after the bar closes, on a bench that faces a sad patch of land that now and then tries to grow grass, but is mostly just dirt and dust, which the playful night wind picks up every few minutes in a swirl before his face. There were a handful of kids here just the other evening throwing around a football. It landed at Kyle’s feet. He picked it up and threw it back, and one of the kids shouted, “You got a great throw, sir!” It made Kyle think about his life in Texas, his teammates, his childhood with Brock, and everything else that seemed bent on crushing his heart. Then one of their parents came rushing over to usher her kid away, glancing back warily at Kyle.
It isn’t just paranoia. Kyle can literally feel everyone’s fear. It seems recent, as if the love he felt in this town just last week has been poisoned. Something has changed. Or perhaps it was just inevitable. Something in his eyes that people feared.
This late at night, the park looks dark and threatening. It seems like everything looks dark and threatening lately. Kyle can’t even trust that a simple shadow isn’t another monster. He isn’t sitting here in this park to relax. Or to think about footballor the good days. He’s watchdogging. Convinced Wendy and Tristan and all the evils of the Vegasyn domain don’t give a shit about Nowhere or its people. Probably would be in Vegasyn’s best interest for the humans of Nowhere to be picked off one by one by the likes of Lazarus and whoever else desires a taste. Lord Markadian is likely laughing at the news, delighting in Kyle’s slow demise. Maybe next time, it’ll be a pack of coyotes possessed by Satan that come by. Or an evil leprechaun, if they’re really lucky.
Kyle needs to keep his eyes open and his Reach awake at all times, if he hopes to stop anything else from showing up and terrorizing his friends—or worse.
“You’re home so late,” says Elias when Kyle finally comes through the door. “Did you stay behind to help Cade again?”
It was Kyle’s excuse last night as well. “I need a shower.”
Elias cuts him off in the hall, grinning. “Before you eat?”
Kyle looks at him. “Nothing fazes you, huh? At all? After what happened, you’re still ready to get down?”
“You’re crazy if you think I’m letting one incident destroy our fun.” He grabs Kyle by the hips, pulls their bodies together. “I want you to tie me down real good tonight, real, real good, and then sink your teeth in wherever you please.” When Kyle’s throat puckers, at once aware of Elias’s eagerly pulsing veins, he wonders if his thirst isn’t just one more thing he pretends is under control.
Minutes later when Kyle ties Elias to the bed—facedown—Elias lifts his head to add, “Maybe tie me a little looser, just so I can squirm better.” Kyle can’t help but wonder if his request is actually a precaution—just in case Elias needs to escape, despite his fantasy of having no chance of it.
But then when Kyle crawls atop his back and grazes his lips teasingly over Elias’s sensitive skin, choosing the perfect spot to bite, Elias suddenly bucks, fidgets, then turns his head. “Sorry.Maybe we, uh …” He shakes it off. “Never mind. Keep going.”
“What is it?” asks Kyle.
“Nothing, really, keep going. Bite me, babe.”
There’s no hiding the fear that still swells within Elias like cold waters, prickling and relentless. It isn’t the excitement that he usually feels when anticipating Kyle’s teeth. It’s something else entirely—something bad.
