Neko-laus 2 : Toy Tiger

5: Well taught

I hate dreams. Or maybe I envied others who could dream of happiness and desires. Mine were always horrid recollections of events witnessed or endured. There was never any dream of running through a fragrant meadow to your lover who was running towards you with outstretched arms. There was one vivid one of sitting in the tattered booth at the bar of the Skills headquarters basking in the afterglow of a rented mouth then Darryl was there with tears in his eyes and a knife in his hand. It didn’t matter how many times the dream replayed itself. I never remember the knife. I usually wake when the blade sinks hilt deep into my stomach. If I’m lucky, I don’t wake up screaming. I’m not a lucky type of guy.

This time the dream is a little different. The taste of the scene, the sound of the bar, the raw grittiness of the place was as real as real could get. A talented mouth was working my cock. He was doing everything I liked, just the way I wanted it and lingering, drawing it out. Oh, yeah. This was worth the credits I’d be dropping tonight. A knuckle began to stroke behind my balls moving south to press against the small opening of my ass. I snapped my eyes open. That wasn’t permitted. I tried to sit up and found my arms that I had laid across the back of the couch were immobilized. My wrists were cuffed to the top of the seat.

“Nicky.” Donnie’s voice drifted up to me from between my legs.

I snapped my head forward and glared down at him as I jerked on the cuffs. They rattled but that was all. There was another tap at my back door.

“Get off of me.” My words were a snarling growl.

Donnie brought his hand up and took me in his palm, jacking me as he rested his chin against my inner thigh. His big eyes blinked slowly then hooded into a sultry look. He pulled my length away from my stomach and then gave one long lingering lick from root to tip ending with his tongue dipping into the small weeping slit.

“I love you, Nicky...you think I’d do this for just anyone?”

“You’re a whore, Donnie.”

A hurt expression crossed his face then his hand tightened. I grunted in pain.

“Now look at what you made me do, Nicky. I might have been a whore once but you knew that when you picked me up and brought me home.” Donnie laid his cheek on my thigh. His pink tongue came out and lapped at my closest ball. He slipped forward and sucked it right into his mouth. He breeched me at the same time.

“Stop it!”

Donnie opened his eyes wide and began to drill his finger into me. It was dry and it burned. I slammed my thigh into the side of his head knocking him sideways. I hissed as his finger scraped it’s way out of my body. I never allowed Donnie access to my ass. Until Grim and the repayments, I never let anyone...

“Now that’s a lie, baby.” Donnie lay on his hip, one hand on the ground the other up in his hair.

“What’s a lie?”

“You’re no better than me. You’re a whore just like me, only instead of making money honestly, you’re making alliances. When I heard you were rolling over for the Grim Reaper, I was physically sick. Letting that old man grunt away on you when you tossed someone like me out with the trash. Then you act like a cat in heat and roll around in front of that State mage. The things I did was just to protect you! All the fucking horrible shit I endured to help you and you turn over and give it up to a blond civie.”

“Shut the fuck up, Donnie. I wasn’t out whoring...”

“You were out wiggling your ass in other’s face long before I came along, Nicky...or did you forget?”

HE was standing there. Standing there between my splayed legs looking down at my debauched appearance with a hungry look and lick of the lip. The man with the face of my father. The man with my own features. The uncle who took everything important from me.

Fear hit me hard. I never claimed to not feel fear but I worked hard had getting through it when I had to. Donnie knew what I sounded like sometimes late at night. Grim did too. He never said anything but there was always more candy bags on my pillow in the morning if it happened in his bed. You can pretend it never happened but the evidence was there in the morning. The red eyes could be blamed on the booze. The tight throat could be from screaming over the music. Tears on the pillow. You couldn’t blame anything else for the tears.

And that man standing there looking down at my displayed and helpless body was the cause of all of it.

“I killed you!”

Eyes the color of yellow topaz raked over me. He never said anything to me. Just like in real life I was beneath his notice. His hand reached out and caressed my inner knee. Darryl had left me hard and wanting but now I wilted.

“Don’t touch me...don’t you fucking touch me!” I tried to thrash clear of him but my wrists were pinned to the top of the seat. My legs were wrenched apart and he was between my knees. I could feel the heat of his body against my naked flesh.

“NO!”

His hand came up and cupped the side of my face then tightened cruelly around my jaw wrenching my head back around to face him directly. Tears were streaming constantly from my eyes as I weakly fought against him.

“...no...”

My chest began to itch then burn then scorch. It felt like my flesh was burning off my chest. Red light blasted up from it hitting the man square in the face and throat. He gurgled and staggered backwards batting at the light as if it were flames. I was able to close my legs and pull them up to my chest so I was not splayed so vulnerably. I watched stunned as he began to break apart like ashes blowing out of a campfire.

Tears were still streaming down my cheeks even though this dream didn’t end the way it did in real life. Humming sounded over the dance music of the bar. It wasn’t louder, it was just stronger. My nose was running now. I was snivelling and half naked. The humming was coming from the darker part of the room. A lavender glow caught my eye.
It couldn’t be...could it?

The tattoo on my chest began to glow again, this time a soft pale crimson in response to the lavender illumination. Mags walked out of the shadows dressed atypically. He was dressed like one of the Reapers from the Shambles. His long legs were encased in tight black leather that sat low on the hip. He had on chunky heeled steel toed boots silvered up with studs and chains around the ankle. Mags also had on a black leather vest without a shirt. The lavender light was Skulls mark. His left arm had a fingerless glove that extended up to his elbow. His right had a studded cuff around his wrist. What startled me the most was the hair that flowed over his shoulder like a curtain of gold. It ended just below his nipples. The whole of his hair shimmered with each step as if it were a river of sunshine.

My mouth went dry.

Mags stopped and looked around. “What a horrible place you decorated, Nicky. Let’s do something about that.”

Mags gestured with his hand and the cuffs released. My arms dropped down from the top of the seat. This wasn’t a replay of a memory. I wrapped my arms around my shins curling in on myself. The seat shifted as Mags plopped himself down beside me, close enough that I could feel his body heat but not attempting to touch me. I frowned. The Maggie I knew was a tactile person. He should be laying on me as his propping pillow.

“Wh...” I swallowed and licked my lips. “What are you doing here?”

“You called...” I stiffed as a warm hand brushed down my cheek. “You are so adversarial, Nicky that I forget how young and naive you are... then you show me something like that.”

His hands were elegant as he gestured to where that man had stood. How should just a simple hand gesture convey so much?

“I’ve been thinking of you as my untameable wildcat but I couldn’t have been more off the mark. You’re just a kitten.”

I sniffled and caught my rising anger. He just knew the wrong thing to say. That had to be a natural talent. “A kitten?”

“All hissy and spitting out warnings not to get to close. I thought it was just me, but it’s everyone and now I can see why. Come in out of the cold and darkness my kitten. Warm yourself by my fire.”

“Are you using magic right now?”

“Well, yes.”

I leapt to my feet well aware that I was naked from the waist down. “You’ll be doing more than warming me by the fire if you...”

Mags came close and laid a hand over my mouth. “Can’t you feel me?”

I frowned.

“You are in my arms, Nicky. I am humming gently into your ear while the medics remove the downed Grooms and other Latents from the room. Your body was so cold when I found you.”

“My nose...”

“Yes, that’s an awful mess. I wouldn’t let the medics sedate you. I wouldn’t let anyone disarm you. So between the protests of the both of us you haven’t had any medical treatment.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because...”

“Because is not an answer.” I didn’t snarl at him the way I usually did.

“...because I felt the absolute fear you dealt with when you woke up in medical. It wasn’t faked and while you might think I’m an ass, I don’t get any joy out of seeing my friends in terror.”

I felt a burning in my cheeks and turned away from him. “Who are you and where is King Tiger?”

“Am I that bad, Nicky?”

I paused as the humming began again. I didn’t recognize the tune and it easily drowned out the music of the clubhouse. My body was suddenly filling with warmth, my entire back from hip to shoulder. More warmth, but it as if a sweet wash of water was pouring over my chest. I could feel the other hand on the outside of my hip. “What are you doing?”

“We are on the floor. I am cradling your body. I have one hand on your kitty and the other is on your hip. Just like this.” This dream Mags walked towards me then slipped behind me pressing his warmth from hip to shoulder. His hand splayed over my tattoo and the other came around cupping the side of hip, pulling me back to him. “This isn’t too bad is it, Nicky?”

“What are you humming?”

“Ask me that when you wake up, Nicky.”

I could feel the tattoo begin to flare to life. “How much magic are you wasting on me?”

“Anything I do for you, I don’t consider it a waste, my hurt little kitten. Oh, when you do wake up...don’t stab me. That hurts and the last time I had to go to medical because I couldn’t get the bleeding to stop and they filed a report with HQ. We are in enough trouble as it is and we don’t need HQ monitoring our every action.”

This was the opportune time to tell Mags that he was under constant surveillance as it was but I let it pass by. For all his bluff and bravado, he has stood by his word when he gave it. To suspect that the higher ups don’t trust him is different from knowing that he is feared and suspect. I’d carry that burden for him for curing my space sickness.

His breath slipped along my ear as he spoke. “Oh, kitten...is this how you really see me?”

My eyes were drawn to the curtain of gold that he drew forward it over my shoulder by releasing the tattoo and allowed to fall strand by strand on my chest. Mags hand slipped back to my chest. “You promise to take care of it, I’ll grow it out.”

“This is rare in the Shambles and I’ve never seen it before at home...”

“Out in the Wild.”
“You’d be a prize out there.”

“I’m not a prize now?” There was a teasing lilt to his voice now.

“Don’t push it, Mags.”

“Now would be a good time to wake up. Remember not to wake up and start stabbing. It’ll be me.”

There were times when I couldn’t find my way out of the nightmare. It would be like trying to find your way out of a room with no doors. This time, I just had to follow the sound of Mags humming. It was deceptively simple but complicated as well. I like it.

Mags was rocking me gently as he hummed beside my ear. I opened my eyes slowly taking everything in, my awareness was so slow. Yeah, I had used magic. That kicked my ass harder than anything the Latents had directed at me

Black legs were akimbo around my hips and thighs. Mags was doing just as he said he was. One hand was splayed over my tattoo. He had a hard on drilling a hole in my spine. “Are you horny all the time?”

“Actually before I met you, Nicky, I do believe my medical records listed me as sexless.” Mags whispered in my ear.

That was a lie, it had to be. I felt like I’d been dropped out the side of a moving vehicle and rolled about fifty feet in gravel and rubble. I slumped heavily back against Mags. My face hurt. There were a lot of white lab coats in the room attending to the rest of the fallout casualties. Mack was standing, well more like leaning against the wall by the entrance talking to another black uniform.

“What the hell happened here, Nicky?”

I lifted a hand to my forehead and that was a sign for the medics to start rushing over. Before I could tense up, Mags had his hand up in the air before the both of us and it glowed red with warning. The medics froze in their steps.

“One...just one approaches. No needles.”

The medics sort of looked at each other and I could read their eyes as they flashed messages back and forth. The youngest finally sighed then set his white bag down. He held his hands out palms forward to show that he was unarmed.

“Have you got any candy on you, Mags?”

“Not something I grabbed when I got the call.”

“I need to draw from you.”

“Really?” There was a tone of apprehension in his whisper.

“I can just keep laying here for about an hour or two.”

I have never heard such grumbling but then I was shifted off his warmth and he lay me gently down on the carpet. I think I blinked my surprise up at him as my hair fell back off my face. “I’ll try not to hit your nose.”

He was going to do it.

“King Tiger...we really need to give medical attention.” The medic called out to us.

“In a minute...” Mags firmed up his jaw then leaned over. His mouth hovered over mine briefly then he sat up. I watched as he waged an inner battle with himself then he ran a hand over his face and opened up his sky blue eyes. There was a fire of determination blazing there now.

“If you don’t want to kiss me, don’t force yourself.”

“This is more than just a kiss and you know it.”

“If you’re scared...”

“Of course I’m scared. It hurts.”

“That’s because you fight it.”

“Here I come.” Mags leaned forward again and once again hovered over my lips. We were a butterfly’s wing away. All I would have to do is tip my head and make the seal. I didn’t do that. It would be like rape. I would be ripping his power away from him without asking permission and I wasn’t going to do that. I sure as hell didn’t like it so I couldn’t turn around and start it myself.

“Arthur for the Empire’s sake do something or get out of the way so the medic can do their job.” Newmarket’s patience had worn thin.

Mags kissed me gently, opening his mouth over mine but I could feel the rigid tension in the rest of his body. I brought my hand up and stroked the back of his neck. He didn’t relax but he wasn’t made out of inflexible steel now. I opened my mouth and ran my tongue along his. I waited until he groaned sweetly into my mouth then I began to draw the energy I needed to combat the weakness lingering in me.

I pulled a ribbon of power from him and swallowed it. A little bit o’king tiger was like scarfing down fifty of those candies at once. The temptation was there to pull more from him but he was close to freaking out as it was. I slowed my draw to a fine thin thread then snapped it off. Mags dropped on me suddenly. He groaned and shot his hand out to catch himself. His blue eyes were a little glazed but he body wasn’t shaking from the exertion.

He blinked and his eyes cleared. “You bring me to my knees, kitten.”

“You’re not going to fall on me again are you?”

“Not right now. Let’s get your nose fixed up, then we are going to have to face the music.”

Music? What the hell did music have to do with anything. By the time the Medic was ready to touch me, I had ramped up everyone’s stress level – as well as my own. He was a younger recruit and he must have gotten the short end of the straw. As long as he moved slow and told me what he was doing, everyone remained unstabbed. To be on the safe side, Mags had one wrist in his grip and Mack had the other when it came down to the crunch. I noticed Newcastle didn’t offer to jump in and help. He had a sickly expression on his face whenever he looked at both Mags and me.

“Alright, we’ll reset your nose on three. King Tiger, count it please.”

Mags nodded. “Three.”

The medic’s hand snaked out and wrenched my nose to the right and then the left then he scrambled backwards as fast as he could.

“What the hell happened to two and one?” Tears stung my eyes and blurred my vision. I tried to bring my hands up to my face but the grip held me tightly.

The medic stammered. “King Tiger said three.”

“Sorry, Nicky...” Mags murmured without a hint of regret. “Well it looks straight.”

I looked around the training hall. Those Latents who were up and moving looked over at me with...longing. I would have expected fear but it wasn’t. No, it wasn’t longing...wanting? I frowned. I had just knocked all of them on there asses and they were ready to come at me again. There wasn’t a malicious intent among them. They wanted me to... really? It couldn’t be.

“Commander on Deck!”

Those who could stand scrambled to their feet. Mack let go of my wrist and promptly fell over on his face. Mags took the hint and just pulled me back against him so we ended up back to front.

“Why did I even suspect it might be something else? King Tiger, explain yourself.”

“I’m drained. I can’t get up right now, Sir.”

“That is not what I am talking about. Can you explain to me why three quarters of four decks have been shorted out? Can you give me any reasonable excuse for all the Latent and their Groomers needing medical attention? It looks like your own Groom requires some as well.”

I reached out and pulled Mack up and over into my arms. I’m sure that we looked less than military before this black uniformed man. I could smell the blood on my face. I could feel its flakes drying tight on my skin.

“Tell me who’s fault this is, Magnus.”

“I can’t, Sir.”

“I can.” I blinked the man into focus. He was comfortable in the Mage black uniform. He stood before King Tiger who made everyone else tremble in fear just why the mention of his name. This was High Commander Hydrau, the leader of the Mage division. I hadn’t met him personally before this and this was a hell of a first impression.

“You’re Neko-laus, Magnus’ wild kat.”

“Do you want to know or are you just going to insult me?”

I heard Mags snort into my hair.

“You are lacking in discipline, Neko.”

“So are your Latents, Hydrau.”

“You better explain that. And you will refer to me as High Commander. Who is at fault here?”

Mags arms tightened on me. Mack stiffened and leaned heavily back against me. “You are.”

“I am?”

“You have taught your Latents well. Mother introduced me as a Latent. They saw me as a powerful Mage and tried to upgrade to the latest model.”

“Mage?”

Just them a ripple of warning ripped through me. Didn’t Grim tell me not to say anything about that? I was special enough ranking as a Mark IV Latent.

“You’re a untested mage lose on my ship?”

Damn it, sometimes honesty will kick the crap out of me.


* * *

Any pithy sayings will be left here at the end from now on. Pithy. I like that word. Pithy, Pithy, Pithy.

Drop me a review. No stroking my ego makes Kiix really really lazy. Later!