Brad Beyer, how I see James. :) The pace is about to increase Lovelies. Hope you can keep up!
"Freedom!"
I landed on the roof and looked down and back at the interlopers. There was something familiar about them, but where one part of my brain was screaming his name, 'Scott?' The rest of me was shoving that annoyingly soft side to the blackest, farthest reaches of my brain. I might have loosed my chains and gained ascendency for the time being, but I knew better than to ignore the small blue ball of light that was still shining in the swirling darkness.
At more than one time in my life and afterlife, I'd tried to get Zass to set me free. When he was still Mitchell, I'd mostly been stuck deep in his brain. The dark part of him that came out when he was angry and still human, and when he was aroused. When Morgan had been educating him, pain had been part of what she had initiated him into, basically to get him used to her fangs. It was an unavoidable part of the experience but unwelcome to him at least in the beginning. After he changed and he let that pleasure pain response take the front seat I got to have fun. When he struggled to keep his meals to a minimum and leave his donors satisfied and still breathing, that's when I fought the hardest to come out and play.
It was so frustrating, having to be a 'good boy' for the past few hundred years. Sitting in the dark prison Zass had erected around my part of his personality had been totally infuriating. The few times I had managed to shut down that annoying bright blue spark that ruled over our personality it had resulted in nights of debauchery, blood and pain. Sometimes I wanted to be the one giving the pain and sometimes I wanted to be the one receiving it.
Looking at the tall blonde who was straining to make out the rooftop I was standing on, I remembered him. But wasn't he dead? That's why Zass had let the walls around me crumble. When he couldn't take the pain he let me take charge to stop feeling. The only times Zass was into pain was when I came out to play. Most of the time he held me in check with blood and sex, making sure I was kept satisfied by other means. Sometimes though I helped to remind him that a little pain was good too. Sometimes a lot.
That time with Scott, when he hadn't been able to satiate me with mere blood had been amazing. Zass hadn't fully let go since Nathaniel and even then, Nathaniel hadn't been able to give Zass everything we needed. But that man down there had satisfied even me, and then he'd healed us hadn't he. The annoying and lingering ache that stuck around in my bones hadn't been there. His blood had been more than tasty, it had been... addictive.
Mmm maybe I should stick around a while.
"Just ignore the tall, blonde Mika. You stick around for anything meaningful with that one and the little blue spark just might put you back in your box." I muttered to myself.
"Zass?"
I heard his voice again, floating up on the night air.
I stepped back to the edge of the tall building and looked down towards the alley entry, focusing my distance vision on the group standing down there as the officers of the law approached to ask their questions. He spread his arms in obedience to the instructions he was issued and I caught a faint whiff of scent on the small puff of wind that rose up past my nostrils.
"Mmmmmmmmmmm." Oh yes, he was delicious. And there was something about his blood that I wanted... needed? Something was itching in the back of my mind about the possibilities that drinking him dry could deliver. He was something more than a mere mortal now and my canines itched as I remembered that tang on the back of my throat last time I'd had a real feed from him. Not to heal, but to taste him. My belly growled at me and I looked over the wall again, noting the other man standing with him, both being questioned about the wounded bullies I'd left in the alley. I heard them say that they had come across the scene and were not involved. The police looked dubious, not that I cared. I was just... ravenous all of a sudden and I wanted that Blonde walking blood-bag again.
........
"It all happened before you arrived on the scene?" The officer asked Tank as he and I were allowed to face our questioners once they had ascertained we were not armed. Fortunately we had left our obvious hardware in the cars and were only carrying small concealed weapons that a pat down wouldn't find.
"Yes, that's correct Officer." I assured him. "I held out my hands and showed him that there were no obvious signs of having used them to inflict the damage that was evident on the downed men. "See, no cuts or bruises. My knuckles are intact and I haven't received any injuries from them fighting back either." He shone his torch in my face to check for blood splatter and I waited there with my eyes closed until the light dipped down to the ground again. No need for him to see the turmoil in my eyes reflecting silver at him. Tank allowed the other officer to repeat the scrutiny with him.
"We found them here like this. We did see a figure leave the alley as we were investigating the noise we heard, but I don't know if there was more than one." I nodded earnestly at the Police Officer then said, "Although I assume so from the amount of damage done to these boys here. What they were all doing here in the first place is something I find interesting."
"Hmph." Was the only response from the officer.
Another car pulled up and two more Officers joined the two questioning us. I recognized one, it was James. The only man I had ever kissed before Zass.
I saw Cerberus's name come up on Tank's caller id. as the screen in the police officer's hand flashed white then died down straight away. I nodded at him and he flashed out a finger before the officer noticed and swiped the accept call button. I read him as he listened to the faint voice that came from the phone.
"Do you want us to provide an alibi boss?"
Tank shook his head in the negative and made the OK symbol with his fingers in the direction of the vehicles.
"Should we go look for Zass?" He asked.
Tank shook again and pointed towards the ceiling of the building. "He's on the roof?" Cerberus asked.
Nodding in answer to the question, Tank indicated that everyone in the cars should stay put and we would deal with the Law.
........
When James and his partner had conferred with their fellow officers, they came to stand next to us and that's when James did a double take on my face.
I knew I'd changed in the time since he'd seen me at the Academy. I'd put on years as well as muscle and a certain worldliness. But it must have looked good on me as far as he was concerned because he smiled widely in that appreciative way boys 'check potential mates out' with before wanting to confirm our stories.
He'd been totally in the closet when we were going through the Academy and I would never have known he was gay apart from one training exercise when I'd fallen from a height and he'd been the first one to run to my aid. A rather too long hug when I was able to get up and a whispered "Glad you're OK Scotty." In my ear made me look quickly at him and smile. He'd caught that smile and had approached me later that night. I sat in the common room reading a book when everyone else had disappeared for the night and he'd come to talk to me. I'd felt his hand softly on the back of my neck as he's come around to sit down, and had looked up at him to receive his lips on mine for a second, before he'd stepped back quickly when another Cadet had switched the light on in the kitchen when looking for a midnight snack. He'd retreated quickly with a horrified expression at nearly being caught and had avoided me for the rest of the week until I'd confronted him.
It was close to graduation and because I'd believed we were friends, we were planning on staying in contact after the Academy up until that moment. He'd told me in no uncertain terms that I wasn't to pursue him because he wasn't prepared to poke even a toe out of the closet. I assured him I was uninterested in pursuing him that way in any event. He looked taken aback for a moment and then asked with a shocked expression, "You're straight?"
"I don't really know." I said. "But I know you'd never do anything to jeopardise your career so don't feel concerned about me saying anything. I just want to still be friends."
He'd nodded in the affirmative and assured me he would remain my friend. But we'd been allocated to different station houses much to his relief and had fallen out of contact. It hurt, but didn't surprise me. Just one more in the long list of 'friends' that I thought I had only to find they weren't real friends after all. I'd heard that his rise through the ranks had come as no surprise to his superiors, and that he'd been one of the ones paired with female partners most often. My guess was that the brass suspected his tendencies and put him with females more often than not because they wouldn't have to worry about sexual harassment claims from them.
"Scott?" He said, "It is you Scott isn't it?" I nodded and smiled slightly. "I heard about the shooting and the Stadium thing that turned a bit freaky?" I swallowed a chuckle at how trivial that sounded compared to what actually happened that night.
"Hi Jim." I said, reminding him we'd been close once. "Yes, it was a complete debacle, but the papers made more of it than there was. And I'm all healed up as you can see." I said spreading my arms out wide and turning my palms to the sky.
So what happened here?" He asked. "I know repeating everything's a pain in the ass, but tell me what happened."
I went through the story again for him and he took me at my word. When the other officers made to complain that we hadn't explained our presences either, James glossed over that part. As I told the story of our arrival, carefully skipping out the parts about Zass, I knew it was because he wouldn't want them investigating my possible reasons, especially since he was checking out Tank and assumed we were together. I watched him check out Tank's form as he stood there with one hand to his chin, showing off the incredible definition in his arms and shoulders, nodding along with my story. I could tell James was distracted by the stunning Vamp beside me, but then I also saw the heat in his eyes when he looked at me too. Tank was amused by the whole situation and the reason for the smirk he was trying to hide was obvious to me, but James' partner was assuming it was for her from the gaga eyes she was making over him.
I rolled my eyes and smiled at the assumption and James caught it and grinned at me.
.............
Up on the roof, I was watching the scene below me and I caught something that didn't sit right with me. Scott knew the other police officer. In fact, looking closely at them interacting with each other I could tell there was something between them. I remembered enough of the flashes Scott had showed us when Zass marked him that I recognized the tall cop from his time at the Academy. I also remembered him admitting that until that time in his life, he hadn't known he was even possible of feeling something for either sex. Was that one down there the reason he became aware? I watched intently as they interacted and noticed that while they never overtly touched and their glances never became intimate, there was definitely a familiarity there between them.
I frowned and felt something in my gut flare to life.
It felt unusual, yet familiar. Like an old friend that hadn't been around for a while and yet as soon as you were together again it felt like that missing jig-saw piece had been snapped into place.
Jealousy.