Chapter Three
Darius walked up the stairs of his apartment. He rarely took the elevator, but he really should have just this once. The cut on his arm bled into his hand as he tried to apply pressure to stop the flow. Viceroy had met him just outside the building, so he knew that someone would help him if he lost too much blood and passed out. He knew he was simply thinking the worst with that last thought – even though blood kept coming out, it really wasn’t that severe of a wound.
Finally, he made it to his door and knew the worst thing he had to deal with was cleaning the blood he surely dripped in the stairway. He entered the door code on the pad next to his door and a green light flashed quickly, letting him know it was unlocked. He held the door open for Viceroy and followed the snow leopard inside before closing the door and making his way to the couch. His oddly clean couch.
Ever since Wynter moved in to one of the empty apartments the floor below about a month before, they’d spent quite a bit of time together. Once she’d gone inside his apartment a handful of times, she took on the mission of straightening it up. At first, Darius didn’t like it, since he didn’t want a maid, but Wynter insisted on it since he wasn’t charging her rent. And now that his place was clean, he really couldn’t complain.
“Hey, Darius,” Wynter called from his bedroom. “Just putting some… oh my god!” She came into the living room and saw him clutching his still bleeding arm. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“It’s fine,” Darius said, lifting his hand off the wound for a moment to see if the bleeding had slowed. “Just a cut. It’ll stop bleeding in a bit.”
“Are you sure? That looks like a lot of blood for just a cut.” She sat down next to him, placing her hand over his to help apply more pressure. “How long ago did that happen?”
“It’s really not that bad,” he insisted. “It reopened on my way up.” It wasn’t entirely a lie – the cut had stopped bleeding for a while but when he got out of his car, it started bleeding again.
“You got a first aid kit,” Wynter said, getting up quickly and running back into his bedroom.
“I do?” Darius asked, even though Wynter couldn’t hear him. It didn’t surprise him that he had a first aid kit, but he didn’t remember getting it.
“Take your shirt off,” Wynter ordered once she returned with the kit and several towels. She draped one of the towels on the couch next to Darius on the side of the cut. Once his shirt was off she put his arm up on the couch and then pressed another towel onto the wound. “What happened?”
“I thought you were an art student, not a doctor,” Darius said, avoiding the question.
“My dad’s a nurse, and this is hardly the work of a doctor. So how’d you get cut?”
Darius sighed, realizing he wasn’t going to get out of answering the question without being a total asshole, and he liked Wynter. He didn’t need to push away one of the few people that liked him. “I had a little, uh, talk with your ex. It didn’t really go that well.”
“Trent did this?” Wynter gasped. “Oh my god, Darius, I’m so sorry. I didn’t want you to get involved in this!”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s no big deal.”
“Darius! He tried to kill you! How is that not a big deal?”
“He couldn’t have killed me,” Darius said. “He just got lucky enough to catch me off guard to even get me with a knife.”
“What if he got lucky and killed you?”
“I wouldn’t let someone like that kill me,” he grumbled. He knew that her ex was an asshole, but when he actually met the man, he quickly realized that calling him an asshole was an insult to actual assholes. Darius had called him a twat, as that was the only word that seemed to fit him.
“I’m so sorry you got hurt.”
“Not your fault,” Darius replied. “Hey, I think the bleeding’s stopped.”
Slowly, she lifted the towel up and looked at the cut. As Darius thought, he was no longer bleeding. She tossed the bloody towel on the table and picked up a clean one. She went into the kitchen and wet it before gently wiping away the blood on his arm. Once his arm was clear of dried blood, she opened up the first aid kit and pulled out a small spray bottle. She pointed it at his cut and started to spray.
“That stings!” Darius said, flinching away from the spray.
“Don’t be such a baby,” Wynter said. “And don’t move or you’ll start bleeding all over again. How is getting cut with a knife no big deal, but suddenly, a little antiseptic spray and you’re all ready to curl up in the fetal position and surrender?”
“Knives don’t really sting,” Darius mumbled as she resumed spraying his cut.
“You’re crazy,” Wynter said. She put the bottle away and pulled out some bandages and wrapped his arm up.
“Thanks,” he said as he started to get up.
“Sit down,” Wynter ordered. “I don’t want you to start bleeding all over again. I’ll clean this mess up.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Darius objected. “You don’t have to.”
“By the time you’re ready to move, it’ll be near impossible to get the stain out. And knowing you, you won’t get around to it for another month. I’ll do it and save you the trouble of having to go and get new towels.”
“Just throw it in the bathtub,” Darius said.
“And let it sit there for a month?”
“I’ll throw it in the washing machine later.”
“Yeah, a month later.”
Darius realized he wasn’t going to win the argument and let Wynter take all the bloody laundry to the washing machine down on her floor. Once she had left, Darius remembered that he easily could have telekinetically lifted it out of her reach and gotten his way, but for some reason, the thought just didn’t occur to him until it was already to late.
“Thank you,” Wynter said when she had finished with the laundry. She sat down next to him and gave him a hug.
“For letting you do the laundry?” Darius asked, a little confused.
“No dummy,” she said with a smile. “For talking to Trent. I didn’t want you to get involved but I really appreciate it. Do you think he’s going to leave me alone now?”
“Yeah, pretty sure,” Darius said.
“Thank you so much,” she said, hugging him tighter.
“No problem.”
After a few moments, Wynter let go of him and smiled. “So… I was in your room. And I saw that you have a hockey stick. You play?”
“I used to,” Darius said. “A long time ago.” It really wasn’t too long ago. It hadn’t even been three years since he stopped playing. But with all that had happened, those days seemed like forever ago.
“I used to play a little too. Also a long time ago. Only inline though. What about you? Did you play ice?”
“Yeah.” He was surprised that she was a hockey player. For some reason, he just didn’t think she was the type to be interested in sports. “I usually played right wing. What about you?”
“Defenseman. I always wanted to try playing on ice, but it was too expensive. I can sorta ice skate though. Actually, I was thinking that maybe we should go ice skating. There’s a rink not too far from here. When the clothes are done washing, I can put them in the dryer and your arm should be good by then.”
“I don’t know, Wynter,” Darius said. “Sounds fun, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea.”
“Oh. Why not?”
“Because of me. Might make things weird if I show up there. People don’t really like me.” He could see Wynter about to argue and he quickly added, “You didn’t like me.”
“I didn’t know you.”
“Neither does anyone else.”
“You’re not really that recognizable, you know. Only reason I knew who you were was because someone told me and they only knew because someone else told them. Do you seriously just stay by yourself all the time?”
“Pretty much,” he said. “I only go out if I can’t get something delivered. But you really think it might be okay?” He liked the idea of getting out and doing a normal activity for once. For the last two years, he had kept to himself at his apartment unless he was at work.
“Yeah, come on. And if it’s a problem, we can just leave.”
“Yeah, okay,” Darius agreed. “Guess it can’t really hurt.”
“Yay!” Wynter have him a quick hug and then jumped up. “I’ll go check on the laundry.”
An hour later, Darius found himself lacing up ice skates for the first time in years. As he wasn’t entirely sure where his skates were, he rented a pair at the rink. He walked with Wynter over to the ice and paused. He hoped he remembered how to skate, because it would be too embarrassing if he immediately fell down. Telling himself he would be fine, he stepped onto the ice and didn’t fall.
Wynter was a bit more unstable at first and had to lean on Darius, but she soon managed to balance on her own. Even though she could skate, she still held on to Darius’ hand, and for the first time in a long while, Darius actually felt happy and even found himself smiling.
They’d been skating over an hour, although they had to get off for about ten minutes while they resurfaced the ice. Darius used that opportunity to get hot chocolate for himself and Wynter. The whole thing felt so normal, and Darius almost couldn’t believe that he could take part in normal activities. But after several minutes on the fresh ice, Darius’ fears were realized.
It started when people stopped on the ice and were staring at something standing on the other side of the rink’s boards. Darius skated closer and saw the familiar gray fur of Viceroy. For a moment, he was tempted to ignore her, but he knew that she would only walk out on the ice to him if he didn’t go to her.
He skated over, feeling everyone’s eyes on him as he approached the feline. As he got closer, he saw that she was holding something in his mouth and quickly identified it as his phone. He stopped against the boards and pet the leopard with one hand while holding out the other for his phone. She dropped it in his hand and then took off. Assuming that someone was trying to contact him, he looked at the phone and read the message.
“What the fuck?” he muttered.
“Something wrong?” Wynter asked.
“No,” Darius said as he slipped the device into his pocket. “Well, not with that anyway.” He glanced at the other people at the rink, and while some at resumed skating, some were still looking at him with suspicion. “But I think it’s time for me to leave.”
Wynter looked at the other people and with a sigh, she agreed. They took their skates off as quickly as they could and returned them, but even though they were leaving, trouble still managed to find Darius, as it always seemed to do.
“What d’you think you’re doing here?” a man demanded to know. Darius looked up at him, as he usually had to do. Only standing at 5’6”, most other men were taller than him, and with the other man wearing skates, it only made him taller. He definitely looked like someone who could have been in a few fights before, or at the very least, someone who was used to using his large physical presence to intimidate others. Two other men and a woman were with him, and they looked equally displeased with him.
“Leaving,” Darius replied coldly as he moved to walk around the group.
“We’re not done with you,” replied the man, grabbing Darius’ arm and preventing him from leaving. Darius gave him an incredulous look, not able to believe that someone was actually trying to start something with him. And for the second time that day. Fortunately, the man had his uninjured right arm, so he didn’t need to worry about his earlier wound opening up again.
“Leave him alone,” Wynter said, stepping between Darius and the man.
“Oh, what’s this?” One of the other men said with a smirk.“Your girlfriend gotta defend you? You not man enough to do it yourself?” This caused the others to laugh.
“Guess he’s not so tough after all,” said the third man.
Scowling, Darius removed himself from the man’s grip, using only a minimum of telekinetic aid. With the other man on skates, that was enough to make him lose his balance and fall backwards to the ground.
“Hey!” he shouted. “Using your little magic tricks is cheap! You afraid to fight like a real man? Not surprising. You’re a fucking coward. Only taking on defenseless people.”
Darius didn’t bother responding. Instead, he put an arm around Wynter and started walking away. The group harassing him tried to follow, but Darius was too far ahead of them and soon found his feet on concrete – with their skates on, the group couldn’t follow. Instead, they had to settle for hurling insults at both him and Wynter.
“Sorry,” Darius apologized once they were well on their way back to the apartment. “Didn’t mean to ruin your fun.”
“You didn’t ruin it,” Wynter said. “Those fuckers there at the end did that on their own. What idiots. I can’t believe they’d harass you like that. I mean, you could kick their asses without even trying.”
“Yeah, well, I could. But most people really don’t understand just what my abilities can do. Some people think that I can do a lot more than I can, and others really underestimate them. Guess they were in the latter group.”
“Why didn’t you just shut them up?”
“They’re really not worth it,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll just let them go on thinking they chased me off so they can feel better about themselves, and I really don’t give a shit.”
Wynter went back to his apartment with him, but he didn’t have much else to say. Once he was back home, he immediately went into his kitchen and opened the freezer. He pulled out a bottle of vodka and opened it. He opened a cupboard and was about to grab a glass when he thought better of it and simply drank out of the bottle.
“Darius?” Wynter asked, coming up behind him. “Darius, what are you doing?”
“Drinking,” he replied before taking another swig.
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“I really don’t want to talk about it,” he muttered.
“I’m worried about you,” she said. He started to take another drink, but she grabbed the bottle and held it down. “You can talk to me.”
“But I like you,” Darius said. “If you knew me better, you wouldn’t want to hand around me anymore.”
“Oh, Darius,” she let go of the bottle and gave him a hug. “I’m not going to leave you. I promise. I don’t care what you have to say. You’re one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met.”
“You wouldn’t say that if you knew me.” Darius took the opportunity of the vodka bottle being free to take another drink.
“Well, if you keep drinking, I really might not like you.”
Darius took one more sip before setting it down and walking over to the couch. Wynter followed him and sat next to him, but didn’t press him to say anything. Finally, once he started to feel the effects of the alcohol, he started to talk.
“I’m not a good person,” he said, slurring his words. “Maybe I used to be, but I’m really, really shitty. That’s why I drink. Because I hate myself. And it makes me feel like I don’t suck as bad. But I’m not even drunk now so I still feel like shit.”
“Darius…” Wynter reached out and took his hand, but he quickly pulled it away.
“I killed him, you know.”
“What?”
“Your ex. I killed him. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t want to. I just wanted to tell him to fuck off. But then he attacked me and I killed him. If you never want to see me again, I understand. I still have my vodka.”
For several moments, Wynter said nothing, and Darius was sure she was about to leave. Finally, she grabbed his head and pulled him towards her and kissed him. Darius didn’t know what to do and so he just let her kiss him.
“Trent was a miserable waste of a human being,” she said. “If you’re a terrible person for killing him, I’m terrible for wanting him dead. The world is better without him.”
“What? I’m confused?” Darius really couldn’t comprehend that Wynter didn’t care about what he’d done. Or that she was actually happy about it.
“Then just be quiet,” Wynter said before kissing him again.
Darius woke up early the next morning, alone. At first, it felt like just another morning alone, but he soon remembered the previous night. Wynter had been there when he fell asleep. He didn’t remember her drinking anything, but he wondered if maybe she had been drinking and once she sobered up, she regretted what they’d done together and left.
Because he hadn’t drunk nearly as much as he wanted to, he clearly remembered what he’d told her. Maybe she had changed her mind about that and now despised him since he had killed her ex. He rolled out of bed, realizing that he actually slept through the night. That was certainly unusual. He really hoped Wynter wasn’t regretting their relationship. Somehow, she’d helped him sleep at night.
He worried that he would go down to her apartment and find that she had moved out. He dreaded the thought of showing up to an empty apartment and never seeing her again. But sitting in his room worrying about it wouldn’t help anyone. He knew he had better go and get it over with. He took a quick shower and started to dress, putting on his shirt from the night before. When he went to find his pants, they weren’t there, but he did find Wynter’s pants. Maybe if she left her pants, she planned on returning.
Although he had clean clothes thanks to Wynter, he instead decided to try to squeeze himself into Wynter’s pants. While she certainly wasn’t a stick, he was still broader than she was and he couldn’t zip the pants up after getting himself into them. Moving was awkward and it was slow going in the tight pants, but he eventually made it to her door. He stood in front of it wondering if perhaps he should just leave. If Wynter hadn’t changed her mind about him, she would surely go visit him at least to get her pants back.
He finally did knock on the door, but there was no response. Once more, he considered going back to his apartment and hoping Wynter came up, but he really wanted to get it over with, so he knocked again. “Wynter? Are you there?”
Still, there was no response, so Darius tried a different method. “Wynter, the knocking is only a courtesy. I can come in whenever I want.”
The door opened in less than a minute. “No need to break down the door,” she said before noticing what he was wearing. “Nice pants.”
“Would you like to trade?”
“I think I have the perfect pair for you,” she said as she stepped aside to let him in.
“I wasn’t going to break the door down, by the way,” Darius said once inside. “I know the door code. I was just going to unlock it.”
“Oh. Didn’t think about that.” She picked up his pants from a chair where she had folded them. “Sorry about taking your pants. I couldn’t find mine and I didn’t want to walk around without pants on.”
“It’s okay,” Darius said as he removed her pants. They came off far easier than they went on, and then he put his own pants on. “So, um, why’d you leave last night? Did I do something wrong?”
“Not really,” Wynter said with a sigh. “I don’t know. It’s weird. I woke up in the middle of the night and just felt, I don’t know. Weird? I tried to talk to you but you were out so I just came down here. And I don’t even know what it was that was bothering me last night.”
“Oh. Um.” Darius didn’t know what to say in response to that, but there was one thing he did want to clarify. “So, we’re still friends, right?”
“Yeah,” Wynter said. “Of course we are. Why wouldn’t we be?”
“I don’t know,” Darius said with a shrug, no long able to look her in the eye. “I just don’t know how this all works. With what happened last night. And if that changes things. I just never, um, did stuff like this before.”
“Are you saying you were a virgin until last night?” Wynter asked.
“Yeah,” he muttered, feeling himself blush, and it was only made worse when Wynter started giggling. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” she said, giving him a quick hug. “It’s just kinda funny. That I used to think of you as some big, bad scary guy and you’re really a giant sweetheart who gets awkward when talking about sex. See? You’re turning red again!”
“Maybe we should talk about something else,” he mumbled.
“But this is amusing,” she said with a smile.
“Maybe I liked you better when you didn’t like me,” Darius replied, almost smiling himself.
“I’m sure you did. Then you could be sitting in your apartment all day playing video games among piles of old takeout boxes.”
“I hate it when you describe my life like that. Because it’s true.”
“And that’s why you need me. Because I’ll make… Darius?”
He went stiff, as he sensed something was very, very wrong. He focused, trying to figure out just what he sensed. He could just barely hear Wynter trying to get his attention, but his mind was elsewhere and he couldn’t respond. Finally, he knew exactly what had happened and what he had to do to fix it. It would lead him to a trap, he knew, but he had no choice.
“Sorry, Wynter,” Darius said, finally acknowledging her. “I’ve got to go. It’s Viceroy.”
“Is she hurt?” she asked, following him to the door.
“No. Not yet. She’s been kidnapped. I gotta go get her. I’ll be back.” As he ran out the door and towards the stairs, he silently added, “I hope.”