Otherworld

Snow White: Part 2 [King]

Now there was somewhere I felt like I belonged. A sewer rat through and through. No wonder why my parents got rid of me.

But Ayo was different. Ayo wasn't a street rat or a common criminal. Ayo was raised well and his parents meant well, but I'd known the moment the announcement of Blaine's pregnancy had been made, Ayo was going to spiral downhill. Even though he didn't admit it out loud, he was definitely feeling more like an outcast as Blaine had his children. It wasn't so much as Ayo was jealous, I don't think, as it was the fact that Ayo was beginning to realize that he wasn't really part of their family. At least, that's how I saw things.

And unfortunately, his parents were going to feel like shit if they found him out here like this. I clenched my teeth and turned back to Ayo. I got down, placed the dagger over his chest, then heaved him up into my arms, cradling his head to my shoulder.

And a second later, I was teleporting us out of the house and into Styx, because if we stayed, his parents would find out and destroy me. Then Ayo would never come back. I know he said his parents could help, but I didn't want to risk having my head lopped off before I had the chance to talk to Ayo again.

So I teleported us back to my home on the opposite side of Styx, a large two story colonial home surrounded by a wrought iron fence. I glanced around to make sure none of the neighbors were out and about, before I quickly went to the door and waved my hand in front of the handle to undo the locks before I crept inside. I locked the door behind me and I turned to face the foyer of my home at the sound of a low menacing growl in the dark.

I frowned and glanced at one of the silver light fixtures, causing light to flood the house in a golden glow, reflecting off clean sleek wooden floors, and making the large L-shaped staircase to the left glitter. Stalking down the hallway toward me from the kitchen was a large black panther, who looked ready to pounce until she realized it was me. Her ears flickered and tail swung back and forth as she trotted over to me, rubbing up against my legs before pausing to sniff at Ayo curiously.

"It's all right, Kiko." I told her. She cocked her head up at me, green eyes glowing before she slunk off to the living room. I followed her inside and laid Ayo out on one of the large beige sofas in front of the fire place. I sat down on an armchair beside the sofa, and put my head in my hands, taking a deep breath.

Shit, shit.

What could I do? The blood thing didn't work. I couldn't leave him like this. I clenched my fists under my chin, studying Ayo as he slept.

"God, you are so stupid," I seethed at him, making Kiko bristle at my side, "You have no idea how good you had it. Do you have any idea what I would have done for parents like yours at your age? Christ..." But that wasn't entirely true. Obviously something was wrong for Ayo to want to go to these kinds of lengths to get away. But I wasn't going to let him run away. Running away never solved anything and he was hurting his parents through this method, and nothing gave him the right to hurt the people who'd given their all to take care of him.

If he'd just talked to them about it...

But it was never that easy. Nothing was ever easy. As Ayo told me once when he'd kneed me in the groin for trying to cop a feel, c'est la vie. That's life. I sighed, rubbing a hand against my forehead, then watched out the corner of my eye as Kiko slunk up between my chair and the sofa Ayo was on, so she could nuzzle her face against Ayo's palm. Ayo sighed in his sleep, but that was it.

I needed to reserve this, and fast, before Cerberus and Blaine figured out where to find me. I was sure that my members and customers would never give away my location, but there was always going to be that one rat that ruined everything. And I had to solve this before that rat gave it away.