Cygen

Mercutio sighed through his nose,
nudging KJ ahead of him. She had tears on her face, and she’d bitten through
her lip at some point… stupid, stupid to have brought her uptown… but she was
the tracker, and she was the only one who had even the barest chance of finding
Lochinvar.

It was Lochinvar who’d saved him.
Not more than a month in London’s
pack, and he’d risked his position arguing that Mercutio be allowed in.
Lochinvar who’d found him curled into a fetal ball behind a 7-11 after a pack
of vikings had…no. Not good to dwell on that.

Lochinvar was the closest thing
he had to a friend… gods knew the rest of the pack wasn’t terribly enamored with
him, his skittishness, his anger. Loch understood… he
would, he was a kid once too. Charmed childhood, yeah, but at least he’d been a
kid. It was more than any of the others had.

            Mercutio
had been made nine years ago, at twelve years’ growth. That put him just about
the same age as Loch, no matter which way you sliced it.
It made him one of the oldest member of the pack, after London
and Loch. But he had history. After all, there were only
so many reasons to make a cygenic so young…

            That was
why he couldn’t let it go. He KNEW what humans used cygenics like him and Loch
for. He couldn’t just leave Lochinvar to that fate…

            “He’s on
the next street over… he’s standing still now… God Mercutio, let me go!” KJ
whimpered, glancing over her shoulder.

            “Fine,
run away. I don’t need you anymore anyhow.” Mercutio spat, finally releasing
her. She was getting dangerous, if anyone saw them there would definitely be
questions… better to let her go now. She was gone in moments, disappearing down
the alley and over the fence at the end, running home. He had other things to
do.

            KJ had
been against this from the start, and though she had a good five years on him
biologically, she was only six years out of the tank and had never learned
fighting… and he had a good hundred pounds on her, easy. London
and Nix had gone scavenging, and it was a matter of five minutes before he had
her leading him uptown to find Lochinvar… he still felt bad for that, at some
level…but he hadn’t hurt her.

            Mercutio
ducked around the corner, staying in the shadow of the building. His heart
skipped a beat when he actually saw Lochinvar… for all KJ’s
assessments he wasn’t entirely trusting of her skills. She’d been a police
tracker once, with a tracer built into the middle of her brain. She knew Lochinvar’s
tracer number, knew everyone in the pack. As long as he was alive, he could be
found again. And now they’d found him.

            He was
sitting on a bench in the sunlight, dressed up in an outfit that probably cost
enough to feed a third-world nation for a week. His hair was tied back, and
looked several inches shorter than he remembered it. He was reading…

            Mercutio
looked both ways before stepping out of the alley… no humans around,
thankfully. Middle of the day, most everyone was at work. Good timing.

            “Cavalry’s
here, come on,” he whispered, sitting down on the bench beside Loch.
Lochinvar, for his part, startled and then smiled broadly, putting his book
down.

************************************************************************style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Lochinvar had left the library more
than an hour ago, and he really had intended to go home, but somehow he’d found
his way to the park… he hadn’t been to the park in years, forgotten just how
much he missed it. Especially in the autumn… but now here he was.

            Nathan
had taken him down to the office of cygenic affairs earlier in the week and
finished the process of licensing him, paid back all his back taxes and such,
made him truly and legally his own. Anyone who ran his tracer would come up
blue light, actively owned. Which meant that cygenic management and the gangs
would leave him alone… there were plenty of genics
who came up green light and yellow light, with nobody to vouch for them or get
mad if they got ‘damaged’.     

            He
belonged to Nathan now… and he couldn’t think of any other situation he’d
rather be in. God, Nathan! The way he smiled, the way he spoke,
moved…everything about him. It wasn’t just the sex, though that was fantastic…
it was watching movies, and having real conversations, and wandering around
through all the downtown shops to buy clothes for him. Nathan had insisted that
he have proper clothes, despite Lochinvar’s protests at the cost.

            Lochinvar
grinned and glanced at his watch. Three thirty-five. Nathan wouldn’t be home
until six, so he’d said. They had plans to go to Iris’s bar that night. He
turned the page in his book…another thing Nathan had given him that he
absolutely cherished. It had been so long since he’d had a chance to read.

            A sudden
movement to his left caught his attention, and when he turned a very familiar
person had situated himself on the bench right beside him.

“Mercutio! What’re you doing
here?” he asked with a surprised smile.

"Came to bail
you out, come on, we have to get out of here before any humans show up."
He said, tossing his head back toward the alleyway and standing, taking hold of
Lochinvar’s upper arm and dragging him up as well.

"How'd you
get here?" He said, blinking, as if he expected Mercutio to disappear.

"KJ hooked up
to your tracer. Lotta walking. Speaking of which, we
should do some more now. "

Lochinvar tucked
his book into the pocket of his jacket and shook his head.

"I'm not
going anywhere."

"What?" Mercutio
hissed, his eyes narrowing. Lochinvar noticed the tremble, the little
shattering behind his eyes. He knew that look and sought to sooth it.

"I'm staying here. I’m sorry, I should have sent a contact… I would
have thought of it eventually. I have to be back home by five-thirty or so,
Nathan’s coming back at six and we have plans for the night. I’m sorry you went
through all the trouble, but I’m really in no need of bailing out… Hey, do you
want lunch or something? I’ve got thirty dollars on me…” he reached into his
pocket and pulled out a wallet, glancing down at it… and felt one of Mercutio’s
iron hands clamping down on his shoulder, the other one making its way
startlingly into his hair…

“Sorry in advance, but
you’ll thank me for this eventually…” Mercutio murmured, and he felt the
horrifying sensation of a pin sliding into the jack at the back of his neck…
and then he felt nothing at all.