Episode Thirty-Five The Gun

Z oron

I'm happy to see Eldar descend the steps with a gun in his hand. I have a bad feeling about this place.

The avian who brought the clothes to our cabin said the folks from the Village planned to stay around for days after we left, removing dead bodies and looking for any of the children who might have been so scared they were hiding.

It looks deserted, but you never know. A few humans may have been off hunting and could still be hiding nearby, waiting for some of us to return.

Something's off about my mate. Normally, he'd stride to me and put his hand on my flank or around my waist. Both of us have admitted we just feel better when we're touching each other.

Instead, his eyes are avoiding mine as he keeps Lylah between us. Something changed between them. I can feel it. It doesn't make me jealous. Just the opposite. I'm happy things are thawing between them.

That he's avoiding me? It fills me with dread.

"Joseph told me his friend had finished his stint Down Below and had returned Up Above. He was five doors down. The place should be clean. They garnish people's last paycheck if it's left with a speck of dust. The apartment is on the ground floor. That should work for you, Zoron," Lylah says.

We find the place just as she described. It's a ground-floor apartment with no personal belongings, just basic furnishings.

Before we bed down for the night, the four of us walk to the community kitchen on the edge of the commons. Lylah said it was where she'd gone the night she got thrown into the cage as punishment for feeding the proudborn.

We've rummaged through the shelves and opened some cans of food the freedom fighters left behind. This is what the humans eat? I've never seen anything like this.

"Oh," she moans, making a sound usually reserved for sex. "Oh, open another can of these." She waves her hand at the three of us, assuming one of us will do her bidding.

"Fates, no wonder Joseph wouldn't let me eat them. This is heavenly. He kept all of our rations to himself and only doled them out when it served his purposes."

The label says "peaches."

"Canned peaches," she says, then makes another moan that's so sexual a swift glance tells me the three of us males are all hard from it.

"Here."

She steps to each of us and spoons a bite of the delicacy into our mouths. Yes, it tastes good, but it's not as delicious as the look of sheer pleasure on her pretty face.

We grab handfuls of canned goods and hurry back to our apartment, where we push most of the furniture in front of the door in preparation to hole up here for the night.

The males and I decide to take turns on guard duty. We're not foolhardy enough to leave our barricaded apartment, but we'll stay awake, armed with our gun.

We drag the mattress into the front room and Lylah and Hazlan lie on it. The equine part of my body lies on the floor itself, but my upper body joins the two on the bed. It's a level of comfort I've never had before, but the cushioning of the mattress is less exciting than the enjoyment of being next to the female.

The first time we slept together, she tucked close to the proudborn and tried to pretend Eldar and I weren't in the same room. Tonight, her fingers play through my unplaited hair until she falls asleep.

Eldar's sitting ramrod straight on one of the kitchen chairs, studiously avoiding me.

"I love you, mate," I say, my voice a rough rumble. "We'll talk tomorrow and you'll find it in your heart to tell me what I've done to hurt your feelings. And I'll apologize, because whatever it was, I didn't mean it."

His gaze finds mine, his eyes wide and full of guilt.

"You've done nothing, love. Nothing."

I seldom wish I was anything other than what I am. I am centaur, half man, half horse with a strong and powerful build that can run for hours. I'm also big and bulky and couldn't walk up the apartment steps to help Lylah earlier today.

Right now, if the female's head wasn't lying on my chest, I'd rise and go to the handsome white-haired elf who has been the most important thing in my life since the day I met him.

Instead, I lie here and hold Eldar's gaze.

"It's this place," he says, his gaze darting down the hall. "Memories."

I'd already suspected that. No. I didn't suspect it, I knew it.

"Aye. But instead of wanting my comfort, you shut me out." I let him see the misery on my face.

He takes one step, then slides the rest of the way on his knees until he reaches my side. His is the opposite of Lylah's gentle touch. He's rough and strong and powerful as he grips my face, turns me toward him, and kisses me with love and passion and desperation.

"I think it's my turn for guard duty," Hazlan says as he eases from bed and heads toward the vacated chair where Eldar left the gun.

Being relieved of duty allows the elf to clutch me harder and snuggle closer.

"I fucking love you, mate," his voice is a deep growl. "Fucking love you."