Finding Blood (City Underdark #1)

The Future

They cleaned their mess with a rag. Barmond thought that he was going to get his clothes from the floor to put them on, but he found that he was too comfortable on the bed for that. So he stayed laying there, in silence, for a while. He stared at some of the trophies that Hugo kept around his room. Like all hunters, he probably had a tale for every one of them. Barmond did not like hunting himself; if he did, it would be to rid the land of some foul beast.

"Otto would hate it so much if he knew that we slept together," Hugo suddenly said.

That... that had come out of the blue. Barmond turned around and stared blankly at Hugo.

"Pardon?" he asked.

"I hate that I think of him now," Hugo said. "But he'd really be mad. He might even take it out on you if he knew."

"I... All right," said Barmond. "I'll make sure not to mention it in my report."

Hugo chuckled. Barmond did not really see what was funny. He better not be laughing at him again.

"Don't look at me like that," said Hugo. "All right. Maybe I'm to blame. It's not nice to talk about my ex when we just had... the best of moments."

"Your... your what now?"

"My ex?" Hugo got his head upon his hand, elbow sinking in the pillow. "We used to date, Otto and I... Well, maybe date is too soft a word for what we had. We were hunting partners who fucked. Didn't you know?"

"I did not."

Barmond's head was full of a million questions and he didn't know which one he needed to ask first. Was... was that why Otto had been so upset to hear that Hugo had bloodblissed Barmond? Was it...

"Is that why he sent me here?" Barmond asked. "At first? To spy on you?"

"On little old me?" asked Hugo. He chuckled again. "Maybe. Most probably. That sounds like something he would do. I mean, if he did, it really bit him in the ass."

Hugo trailed off, staring at Barmond. He reached out to stroke his cheek.

"I should have bitten your ass," Hugo said. "It's a very cute one."

"Leave my ass alone," said Barmond, swatting Hugo's hand away. He did not deserve to stroke his cheek if he was going to call anything of Barmond's cute again.

"I suppose it's too late to bite it now?"

"Don't bite my ass."

Hugo, for some reason, found that hilarious. So there he was, again, listening to him laughing his butt off, and there was nothing that he could do about it except wait for it through. He was not annoyed enough that he thought that it might be worth hurling insults at him again to try and stop him. It never worked anyway.

Hugo did eventually calm down. And then, like the sleazy little cheat that he was, he crawled over to Barmond, trying to pass an arm around his waist. Barmond immediately wiggled out of his attempted hold.

"Aw, I promise I won't be biting anything, now," said Hugo.

"I do not trust you."

"Since when?"

"Since the moment I saw you."

Hugo chuckled. They both knew that it wasn't exactly true. Well, maybe they used to be on the opposite side of the fence, but now the situation had changed.

For the better, one could say.

"At least come under the sheets," said Hugo.

"I got to leave at some point."