Page 42 of Prior Claim
Alexi set his drink down and used his now free hand to stroke Rei’s bare thighs and the curve of his ass. “It’s hard, I suppose. We make you so dependent on us, and then we leave you.”
Rei tightened his grip on Alexi’s shirt and hid his face.
“I’m not scolding you, pet.” Alexi kissed the top of Rei’s head. “You’ve had a difficult day. Trust your master. He might have needed to make a point to some idiots, but he would never harm you.”
Rei said nothing.
“You can speak freely, pet.”
Rei swallowed and lifted his face a little, but not his eyes. “He could, sir. It’s his right.”
“Your master is a strong man. He doesn’t merely follow orders. He follows his own path. That path includes you. You’re more than a slave to him. And that’s a secret you should take to your grave.”
Rei’s fingers spasmed against Alexi’s chest. “I can’t be more than a slave, sir.”
“You’re precious to him because you are his slave. Not a slave. Ack, language is so limited. There are slaves, and then there are slaves. The ones whose submission matters. The ones you can love.”
“It’s too dangerous, sir.”
“So you know he loves you.” Alexi tilted Rei back and lifted Rei’s chin. “Look at me, pet.”
Rei blinked and lifted his eyes. He could count on one hand the number of times he’d met Master Alexi’s eyes. He dropped his gaze, trembling, but immediately brought his eyes back.
“You know.”
“It’s forbidden, sir.” Rei kept his voice soft.
“Someday, your master will be so powerful, nothing will be forbidden to him.” He stroked Rei’s face, not shying away from the burns. “Do you know why?”
“Because he’s like you, sir?”
“In ways, yes. But no. He’ll become powerful because of days like today. Because he’s strong enough to do what he did, and because he’s angry they forced his hand.”
Rei’s eyes moved from Alexi’s lips to his eyes, to an age mark on his cheek and back to his eyes. It was hard to maintain contact after so many years of carefully not looking others in the face.
Alexi passed his hands over Rei’s eyes, closing them. “Rest now. You don’t have to look anymore. Here, turn over and lie on the couch. Rest your head” He helped Rei stretch out and put his head and shoulders in Alexi’s lap. He placed Rei’s arm around his waist, leaving Rei hugging him lightly, then picked up his drink and went back to stroking Rei’s back. “Rest, pet. I’ll be here. No one is coming for you, not as long as I’m here.”
Ellisandre
Ellisandre adjusted the wide belt on their baggy designer jeans, standing in front of their vanity and mirror. The jeans were cuffed to show off the platform brown boots below. Their button-down work shirt was tucked into the pants, the upper sleeves fastened in place with leather arm garters that matched the boots. Ellisandre ran their hands through their hair. The sides were freshly faded into short stubble that grew longer toward the sweeping length of white hair flowing over the top of their head. They twisted the long straight locks up and pinned them into something like a top knot with a leather thong and carved wooden pin in the shape of a miniature spear. They plucked the wisps of bangs out of the front and sprayed them in place in an arched fall to the side. Their makeup was already finished, a minimalist natural look with a muted lip and smudged black eyeliner.
“Damn, you’re almost dressing down.” Ash sauntered through the open door. The teenage hacker wore red and black plaid today, one shoulder of the shirt almost falling down his arm, showing the black long-sleeve shirt beneath. His jeans were actually belted with a real belt, one of the pairs Collin had forced Ash to buy, meaning they had no holes and they fit. It was the youth’s unnaturally bright red hair that was most distinctive. That and his eyes.
Ash had the worst eyes. His face could write the check for teen rebellion, but his eyes were those of a Rottweiler puppy in an alley, kicked one too many times for trust, one too few times to put it out of its misery. Which was pretty accurately the boy’s life story. Somehow he’d gone from being arrested for hacking Reevesworth Industries to working for them, but he wasn’t even eighteen yet.
“So are you,” Ellisandre snapped back. They opened one of their jewelry drawers and ran their fingers down the row of ear cuffs. “Ready to go up to Linda’s?”
Ash shrugged. “Sure.”
Ellisandre raised an eyebrow. Ash blushed and dropped his face. “Been ready, okay? Don’t rub it in.”
“Honesty is the best defense against being seen.”
“Yeah, well, you take honesty too far.”
Ellisandre grinned a little. They fastened a silver cuff to their ear. It was just a cylinder with curved up edges on the top and bottom. It needed something more. They added a looped chain that fastened to the top of their ear and the bottom of the lobe. The chain swung in a loop part way down their neck. Acceptable. They closed the drawer and opened a different one, this one filled with torcs.
Ash wandered over and looked past Ellisandre’s arm. He pointed to a silver torc with flat chunky links and a rune cut into the link that would hang between the wearer’s collarbones at the center of their neck. “What’s that?”
