~~Young~~

Chapter One

   Only the patrons in their day glow and barely there…costumes- because calling those clothes would really be an insult to all those fine retailers around the world- imparted any variations to the otherwise dark scheme.

   But, that was most likely the idea now wasn’t it?

   “H-h-he’s over there,” the man jutted his chin out as he clung to his support, “the one in the middle of the table.”

   Gage closed his eyes and pulled a frustrated breath through his nose as he gripped the steel support beside him with lethal force, wishing it was the man’s throat. He knew the exact moment when he had lost all patience for the human, when he had literally scared the piss out of him at their meeting. But, he was the one who had the information he needed. So for a few more unfortunate moments he would have to suffer his company.

   “Where’s Vaughn,” Gage had asked the man when he found him earlier, leaning against the doorframe of some rundown apartment building only a few miles from here.

    He knew the answer was never going to be that easy because of Rodney’s stereotypical tough guy façade. Humans and their bravado, their drive to be defiant, to act against any kind of authority meant it was never that easy. Gage smiled at that thought, how quickly he had proved it to be just that, a façade, an act. Rodney could have claimed it was out of loyalty to the man who employed him and as such refuse to talk against him. Or even that it was greed that kept his lips sealed because information had a price. And if he put up a fight it would put a higher price tag on the information, making it seem more pertinent.

   But it was neither of those reasons he wouldn’t speak against Vaughn. No it was the same motivation Gage would be forced to use on him to get him to speak.

   Fear.

   Rodney knew Vaughn would kill him if he spoke against the man, and valuing his sorry excuse for a “life” was the only reason he wouldn’t give him up.

   Or so he thought. Gage wasn’t going to leave that rundown stretch of town or its horrid stench of dirty humans and excrement until Rodney told him where Vaughn was.

   Or he killed him, whichever came first. But the problem with that most tempting of ideas was that it meant Gage would have to start from scratch again, and he was growing horridly bored on this earth as it was.

   “Who’s askin’?” Rodney had jutted his chin out then too, but that time it was in defiance rather than fear.

   “I’m asking,” Gage had responded flatly, tired of the same old song and dance.

   “Well I don’t know you so I ain’t tellin’.”

   Gage raised a dark eyebrow, “But you do know where he is?”

   Rodney pressed his lips into a fine line and cursed.

   Well that was step one.

   Step two was to see if he was speaking the truth.

   “I need to see him right away, it’s…it’s a matter of life and death.”

   What’s the use in lying when the truth sounded so much better?

   The man had snorted, “Yeah sure buddy, and I’m David fucking Beckham.”

   Hardly, Gage had thought to himself. He’d be surprised if the overweight man could run a mile never mind last an entire football game. And his looks, well, the only way women would fall at his feet was if he knocked them out, which he wasn’t putting it past him to do.