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As Mr. D reholstered his weapon, he wondered when the place had last been vacuumed. Probably back when it had been built.
“I’m ’fraid I have to get m’ spurs on,” he said as he stepped around the writhing slayer.
While oily black blood oozed out on the brown rug, Mr. D put his foot on the slayer’s head and pulled out the wallpaper section the Omega had burned the target’s image onto.
“I want to make sure I got y’all’s attention last night,” he said as he held the thing up. “You find this male. Or I’ma pick you off one by one and start with a new crew.”
The slayers stared at him in collective silence, like they had one brain and it was spi
"Y’all stop looking at me and look at this right chere, now.” He jogged the picture. “Bring him to me. Alive. Or I swear to my Lord and savior that I will find me some new hound dogs and feed strips of you to ’em. We all on the same page here?”
One by one, they nodded as the downed man moaned.
“Good.” Mr. D pointed the Magnum’s muzzle at the lesser ’s head and blew that fucker to smithereens. “Now let’s get movin’.”
About fifteen miles to the east, in the underground training center’s locker room, John Matthew fell in love. Which was not something he expected to happen in that particular place.
“Kicks from Ed Hardy,” Qhui
John reached out and took them. Okay, they were hot. Black. White soled. Skull on each one with Hardy’s siggy in rainbow colors.
“Whoa,” one of the other trainees said on his way out of the locker room. “Where’d you get those?”
Qhui
“Try ’em on, John.”
They’re awesome, but really, I can’t.
As the last of their classmates filed out, the door eased shut and Qhui
“I’m sorry for busting on you last night. You know, at A and F, with that girl… I was a prick.”
It’s cool.
“No, it isn’t. I was in a bad mood and I took it out on you, and that is not cool.”
See, this was the thing with Qhui
You’re a freak. But I really can’t accept these-
“Were you raised in a barn? Don’t be ruuuuuuuuuuuuude, my boy. They’re a gift.”
Blay shook his head. “Take them, John. You’re just going to lose this argument, and it will save us from the theatrics.”
“Theatrics?” Qhui
Blay blushed. “Come on-”
Qhui
Blay grunted and scrambled to keep Qhui
“Agasp sounds better.”
Blay was trying not to smile, trying not to be delighted, but his eyes were sparkling like sapphires and his cheeks were getting red.
With a silent laugh, John sat on one of the locker room benches, shook out his pair of white socks, and pulled them on under his new old jeans.
You sure, Qhui
Qhui
“Touché.”
Blay laughed. “That’s en garde, you damn fool.”
Qhui
“Et tu!”
“That would be tutu, I believe, and you can keep the cross-dressing to yourself, ya perv.” Qhui
“Try sanitarium!”
“No, thanks, I had a big lunch.”
The sneakers fit perfectly and somehow made John feel taller, even though he had yet to stand up in them.
Qhui
“You know why Qhui
They all whipped their heads around and looked to the shower. Lash was coming out of it, white towel held in front of his privates, water dripping off his heavy shoulders.
“It’s because Qhui
John stood up, noting absently that the sneaks had awesome traction. Which, considering the way Qhui
“Yeah, Qhui
Blay whispered, “Let’s go, Qhui
Qhui
John stepped into his buddy’s grille and signed, Let’s just go to Blay’s and chill, okay?
“Hey, John, a question just occurred to me. When you were raped in the stairwell by that human guy, did you scream with your hands? Or just breathe really hard?”
John went devastation-still. As did his two friends.
No one moved. No one breathed.
The locker room became so quiet that the dripping from the communal shower sounded like a snare drum.
Lash shut his locker door with a smile and looked at the two others. “I read his medical file. It’s all in there. He was sent to Havers’s for therapy because he was exhibiting symptoms of”-Lash did air quotations-“ ‘post-traumatic stress.’ So come on, John, when the guy fucked you, did you try to scream? Did you, John?”
Surely. This. Was. A. Nightmare, John thought as his balls shriveled up.
Lash laughed and shoved his feet into combat boots. “Look at you. All three of you struck stupid. It’s the cock-sucking Retardateers.”
Qhui
“Or what? Come on, Qhui
“Not one word, Lash.”
“Whatever. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get ghost. The bunch of you are sucking the will to live right out of me.” Lash shut his locker and walked over to the door. Naturally, he paused and looked over his shoulder, smoothing his blond hair. “Bet you didn’t scream, John. Bet you asked for more. Bet you begged the-”
John dematerialized.
For the first time in his life, he moved from one spot to another right through the air. Taking form in front of Lash and planting his body against the door to block the guy’s exit, he looked back at his friends and bared his fangs. Lash was his and his alone.
When they both nodded, the beat-down began.
Lash was ready for the first punch, all braced with his hands up and his weight on his thighs. So instead of throwing a fist, John ducked, lunged forward, and bear-hugged the bastard’s waist, crashing him back into a wall of lockers.