Title: "A Pucked-Up Situation"
By: Chys Lattes
Chapter: Seven/?
Universe: A (Rob Thurman) 'Cal Leandros' Series FanFic
Setting: Story takes place in a modern Urban Paranormal/Fantasy world where the preternatural things that go bump in the night happen to live in the supernatural underbelly of New York.
Timeline: After the book 'Roadkill' ends. It doesn't hurt to read 'Trick of the Light' too, but it's not necessary.
Rating: 18+
Author's note: Piper and Jazel are my OCs. I make no money off of this fic and I don't own the Leandros Brothers Fandom, Rob Thurman does. Warning: This fic contains yaoi lemons, and in this chapter with canon paired characters.
Chapter 7:
It had been several hours, eight elaborate sexual positions and about thirteen feathers ripped out in fits of passion since Robin had curled up behind Ishiah and lulled him into a state of needy, lusty, hyper sensitized arousal. Neither of the two regretted it for a moment. Ishiah had claimed the top once more and made good on his intent to fuck his Puck into the mattress. If they weren't careful they would need to buy a new comforter to go with the sheet Salome had shredded earlier as Robin was pulling the dark blue cloth in tightly clenched fingers from where it had been tucked securely under the mattress.
He leaned down to bite the back of Robin's left shoulder, thrusting in sharply and making his lover exhale in a softly concealed gasp. He could feel his wings tickling his legs with the downy feathers draping around them like a protective cocoon. Robin, sated and sleepy but still quite at it, pushed back against Ishiah's insistent motions and leaned further into his muscular embrace, snaking sweaty hands behind himself to rub sensuously up either side of Ishiah's belly in a very possessive, erotic motion. Ishiah tightened his grip around Robin's chest and sucked at the smooth skin of his neck while seeking a further, deeper place within, closing his eyes to simply enjoy the pulsating and throbbing sensations all around him. Robin's minute moans of pleasure spurred him on, pushing harder against his tender warmth. As their passions intensified Ishiah heard a ripping sound, confirming that this time he'd be buying a green one, something to match Robin's eye color.
Robin leaned back into Ishiah's chest and lazily satisfied himself with a steady hand, feeling the combination of the full, hard flesh within him repeatedly pressing eagerly against the most pleasurable of places and a soft fluttering of breathy kisses on his cheek. Winding down, the Puck settled in to enjoy a last firm and sure thrust as the Peri pulled him against his slickened body in a shuddering climax. They gracelessly crumpled onto the bed, Robin coming hard and fast, panting in an undignified manner. Ishiah smirked as he leaned over his exhausted lover, examining his closed eyes, long curving lashes, and flushed cheeks, smoothing his wavy brown curls between his fingers. As an ex-angel, he knew for a fact that heaven had nothing on this.
-
Unbeknownst to Niko, Cal had asked Ishiah for the night off this weekend. This in itself was unusual, but what he'd asked time off for was even stranger for Cal. He'd put two and two together and come up with something odd. Piper had shown up in town wreaking his tricksterly havoc in Robin's direction- the offshoot of that hit him and Ishiah. Then a demon shows up at Robin's doorstep, and proved he was also after Cal and potentially Ishiah. Coincidence? He didn't think so. He decided to do some sleuthing and having gleaned Piper's current address from Promise's ledger the other day, he'd thought,
'Why not head over and ask?' Maybe he was maturing some but wouldn't admit to it, maybe he was just bored and curiosity ate away at him, but whatever the reason (and it was probably a bit of the former but mostly the latter), he took it upon himself to find it out on his own. He couldn't be a lazy ass every day, right?
So it probably wasn't the best and brightest of ideas this side of pre-sliced pickles by going in alone, but he'd dealt with Robin alone before, so how much more difficult could a younger, more immature version of him be? Actually he didn't really want to know, but knew his feet were rapidly taking him to the place where he'd soon find out.
It wasn't like he was in danger of being caught by some
big bad enemy or something, since the demon hadn't shown up in a couple days, and no one was currently out to kill them to all appearances unless you count the slobbering masses of the werewolf Kin, which Cal really didn't, the elitist pack of puppies. Niko had gone over to spend the day at Promise Nottinger's place. They were most likely having another of their so called 'financial planning' sessions for their joint business which usually never involved Cal though he was a partner in said business. Further confirming his suspicions, Cal never once heard the results of them either. Right, because Niko's casual visitations with the vampire mistress of his wet dreams were all business and no pleasure. Sure.
A day to himself without his over protective, training crazed older brother watching over his shoulder? This appealed to his inner five year old. The sad part was more often than not he'd damn well needed his brother's help, desperately. He pounded the pavement for a few blocks, heading for a darker side of the neighborhood. Piper wasn't exactly lounging in the lap of Pan-glorious luxury, slumming it up out where even the Revenants didn't have a hard time blending in. Most people in the area had a sickly and down trodden look to them. It wasn't exactly the part of the city that makes it on the post cards and television broadcasts unless ghetto shootings were all the rage. Having trotted down several long city blocks without being accosted, spit on, or given the evil eye, the pale black haired gypsy started to feel an itch of unease.
Ah, it was here, wasn't it? It would be.
He really should have known better than to assume a walk down a crowded New York street would be any easier than a stroll through the preternaturally over-infested Central Park. But what was tailing him? He'd slipped into a convenient dark alley (there was always one available around here) and crouched down behind an overloaded dumpster. His pursuer paused in the entryway to the alley as if giving a cursory once over, though as far as Cal could tell he was staring straight ahead. Cal whipped out his long, black Teflon covered knife and decided to make a quick mess of him.
Just as he'd guessed from the area's inhabitants it was a Revenant, a creature that mimicked the look of a corpse or rotting human and ate their flesh to boot. More commonly considered scum and vermin. With great audacity, it meandered almost aimlessly down the alley using its nose to sniff him out. Funny, they weren't usually that smart. It gripped something in the pockets of a long and loose grey trench coat and pulled a sliver of a blade into full view.
Niko would have quickly and pragmatically attacked its weaker points and removed its head from its neck. Cal was more interested in having a little fun. He could use a work out that wasn't imposed on him by his personal trainer, his samurai sword-loving badass brother. He sprung from his hideout and slashed at the ravenous Revenant's clawed hands. He cut off one brittle finger in his first swipe and stabbed it clean in the chest, side stepping the knife it in turn thrust at him. He caught the creature's wrist and turned the blade it in the Revenant's grip to plunge the shining metal into its own neck. The Revenant gurgled out what sounded sincerely like an insult and while gnashing teeth at Cal's jugular, lunged forward with intent to permanently maim. The creature moved as if it felt no pain. It may not have. It wasn't exactly human, but then again, neither was Cal.
Cal let out a thick laugh and pulled his black knife from the creature's heaving chest, sliding it into the throat opposite the other blade. It sickeningly struck easily, severing the flesh as if it were soft and pliant. It was a little too easily, and a bit too quickly. The Teflon coated blade didn't as much as flash in the dim lighting as he decapitated the Revenant. Its severed corpse continued to lash out at his legs only to be kicked against the wall, disdainfully forgotten. Cal wiped off his knives and walked away. He knew it would be eaten by the other Revenants that scented its black blood in the alley, and that would be distraction enough for him to slip past them, with their piranha-like need to feast on the dying. Having had a decent warm up now, Cal felt prepared to face the annoying Puck. Coffee isn't the only thing to wake up to; sometimes a little bloodshed is all you need to start your day off right.
Knocking on his door bright and early wasn't the most informed of decisions on Cal's part. He realized this when the door slid open to reveal the Robin look-alike in nothing but a decent but sheer blue robe with an accompanying smile, a mug of steaming hot coffee in hand. Cal was struck by the immediate memory that this man had kissed him, albeit in a surprise attack, but still they'd locked lips. He tried not to blush at the strangeness of that thought and the blatantly lewd expression he was the recipient of.
"Well, hello. I was just looking for some sugar for my morning coffee, but I think you'd do instead." Piper arched a single plucked brow at Cal's frowning, flushed face. He was definitely going to have to learn to do that himself someday, but for now Cal was stuck with the uni-frown. "I've enough coffee for two, Caliban." That seemed all the invitation he'd get since the Puck turned back in to the darkness of his tiny brown brick-walled hallway. Cal entered the sparsely decorated apartment and stole a quick inventory- there wasn't a weapon in sight nor anything visible which Robin may have considered appropriate along the lines of décor. Appearances truly can be deceiving. This puck was not among the high rollers. His few ornaments lining the walls of the run down little place were flamboyantly colored and cheap looking.
Cal stepped into the living room and took that every last thought back when suddenly his estimation of this Puck was right up his alley, a friend in the 'taste' department, because right there next to an over-stuffed black Lay-Z-Boy that had seen better days was a familiar looking hula-skirted Hawaiian dancer lamp. It was just like the one he used to have, which his brother ended up making him accidentally break while they were sparring to let off some steam one day in their own apartment. Niko had hated that lamp, hated it with a passion of a thousand dying suns, because it was something garish Cal had brought home one day and he had not approved. Its demise was clearly suspect.
Seeing where Cal's attention had been diverted, Piper stepped over to the lamp to turn it on. "She gyrates, so smoothly, too," he stated, flipping a switch on its back to make the hula dancing lamp sway her green grass skirt around and around, her plastic hips swaying.
"I had one, but mine never did that. It must have been broken." Cal mused, watching the ghost of his favorite lamp swirl back and forth.
"Oh, this is a special model." Piper sipped his coffee and led Cal into his tiny but well stocked and very clean looking kitchen. Cal noticed it smelled of oranges. A bottle of 'extra virgin olive oil' sat on top of the breadbox, alone, and Cal snorted at the mental image it induced. Apparently even the more discreet Pucks were suckers for anything virgin.
Piper gave Cal a freshly poured mug of strong coffee and went back to looking for his sugar jar, which he found behind the bread box. It was time to break the ice, which was strange, since he was standing there with a Puck. A very quiet Puck, if Cal had anything to go by. Cal watched him measure out a few spoons of white grains and asked, "Do you know a demon named Jazel?"
"Did you know saying the name of evil can often alert it to your presence?" Piper inquired, holding his mug up in front of his mouth and breathing lightly over the surface of the hot liquid. He didn't seem too surprised or concerned that Cal was here, and was very patiently awaiting Cal's response. He'd known he was coming. Or had been expecting someone else since there had been an extra mug sitting out, now that Cal thought about it.
"Niko may have mentioned that once or twice, Damn." Cal shrugged, wondering just what was up with this guy.
"Niko is your brother, right?"
Cal nodded, "I'm trying to understand something here so correct my sorry ass if I'm wrong, but you came to town and then the demon showed up just out of the blue. You targeted Robin then he did the same. That's one too many things happening at once and I'd like an explanation." To the point.
The puck closed his eyes, breathed out a sigh over his coffee, and said, "You're right, I brought him here." His voice, now more grave, sounded eerily like Robin's could in the way he'd inflected his words, which until this point had had its own strange accent just slightly off the mark from Robin's. It was barely enough to be distinct, and could easily have been missed, if Cal hadn't known Robin for so long and been subjected to his speeches non-stop. "I also sent him after you. Completely my fault."
At this last confession, Cal swallowed a scalding hot gulp of coffee, "What?!"
"I'm a
Puck, what do you expect? He was my lover for a while. I did get tired of him though, with his incessant needling me for my
soul over and over.
'You know what would be great with some sex? A little soul-sucking!' Ugh. Not for me." Piper rolled his bright green eyes expressively and frowned while sipping slowly from his sweetened coffee. "It gets really old, and fast. Then I found out he actually wanted to meet with Goodfellow, something about finding something the demons are on the lookout for now. He claimed if he acquires it he'll move up in the ranks in the underworld. Fat chance." Piper grimaced, "He said Robin was in contact with the person who had it. I don't know. Nothing to do with me, at any rate. I figured Robin would get pissed and finish him off for me. The older Pucks are a lot more agile, strong. He could have done it. But I had to get his attention somehow, right? He didn't though, my mistake. I told Jazel that I noticed you were…different. He was intrigued." With a wistful shake of his head, he rubbed at his arm absentmindedly.
"Do you Pucks always force others to do your dirty work?"
Owlish eyes blinked at him, startled, "And soil these pristine nails? You must jest." Piper held up his hand, showing off a shiny manicure.
'Oh. Geeze,' Cal thought,
"Maybe he is a bad as Robin in some ways.' "So what was the thing he was looking for?" Cal slipped his left hand in his jeans pocket and leaned against the counter, drinking from a red and black striped mug in his other hand.
"Aside from some information on what used to be the local Angel hang out, the Eden House? I think it was called 'The Light'. Yeah, don't look at me like I've turned dicephalous. I'm not making that up. It's too strange for that, hun." Piper refilled their coffee mugs and blew on his until it cooled enough for him to taste it. His mug was green with black stripes, a strange set. He leaned against the counter with his robe slipping down his shoulder. He stared at the streams of sunlight shining in through the tiny little kitchen window.
"Seriously, how old are you?" the curiosity wasn't exactly eating away at his insides but he felt compelled to ask for comparison's sake.
"Oh, fine, fine, I'm only three thousand years old." Confided Piper as he added more sugar to his coffee mug and offered the sugar container to Cal.
"Only? Seriously? Shit." Surprised that he'd gotten what sounded like an honest answer out of the other, Cal was still impressed by the number though it paled in comparison to what he'd been told Robin had lived through.
"Yeah, well, I'm still a baby when it comes to Pucks. Robin doesn't take me seriously. He's way older than most others, too." He sighed.
After a moment of silence, Cal thought of something. Trying out the one brow lift technique, and not sure if he was doing it at all, Cal asked, "So how do Pucks reproduce?" Ok, so he'd never have asked Robin for fear he'd get a far too descriptive and gleeful response, but Piper was about ninety-nine percent less… well… less like Robin, now that Cal had had a decent conversation with the guy, "Goodfellow honestly hasn't told you that?" Cal shook his head in the negative, eliciting a wicked grin.
Piper laughed, "Have you ever heard of something that sounds like 'Auto-M-Preg'?" at Cal's blank look, he hastily continued, "How about I tell you when you're much, much older?"
"Ah, right." Some things are better left unspoken.
Cal's informative visit with the younger Puck didn't go as bad as he'd presumed it would. In fact, he thought it was damn near pleasant. It must have been the lamp with her gentle gyrations that did it. A kindred spirit in the art of tasteful décor was so hard to come by it should be treasured. But, Piper was about as much the opposite of Robin with most things taken into account. He couldn't discount the one time he'd seen the two of them interact. That was probably just them reacting to each other's presence. Cal was hesitant to label Piper as 'likeable' because that would potentially lead down a road toward 'friendly' which could actually lead to 'Friend'. That was a title that had to be well earned with ample amounts of blood, trails of gore, some deaths and a few snarky jokes in between. At least he wasn't immediately placed on the 'shoot to kill' list. That was a plus in the Puck's favor. Cal wouldn't say the same for Jazel who was currently listed at the very top.
So what did he learn? Exactly what his nagging conscious kept telling him.
He mentally rehearsed what he planned on telling Niko later that night: Jazel and Piper used to be an item, but broke up. Piper sounded sick of him. Jazel went after Robin to get 'The Light' or information pertaining to it. Whatever this light thing was it couldn't be half as entertaining as the gyrating hips of Piper's hula lamp, hands down. Jazel got easily distracted by Cal, assuming he wanted to consume Cal's soul with a nice red
Bordeaux. And Ishiah? He probably assumed the Peri knew there to find 'The Light' based on some imaginary contacts in the old dead New York branch of the holy organization of Angels known as Eden House. So where was Jazel at now, anyway? The only one he didn't go after personally yet was… Ishiah.
'Shit.' Cal got out his cell phone and hit the speed dial on the contact he'd mockingly labeled 'Tweety Bird'. A sinking feeling filled his gut when he heard it ring but there was never an answer.
-
Catcher awoke to find his nose pressed against the warm fur of Rafferty's belly. They were curled up next to each other near a large hole in the ground. What had they been doing? The taste of strange blood was on his canine lips, and in his teeth were bits of odd flesh. He couldn't remember and it frightened him beyond anything in his recent memory.
How did they get way out here in the forest? What forest was this? Were they still in Yellowstone? It smelled different. More crisp in the air with a hint that it would turn humid soon. He felt disoriented and confused. Why was Raff in wolf form, asleep?
There were far too many unknowns. He'd really blanked out this time, but it wasn't the big one, was it? No. He had one more moment of clarity before he lost himself completely. A sickly teaser, at best. He felt like crawling into that hole to curl up and die, literally. He didn't want to go back to the blank nothingness of the All-Wolf. He suddenly had a flash of memory. After Suyolak, the crazed healer turned psycho killer-of-worlds, after the fight at Yellowstone, after the Puck and the Leandros brothers went back home, the two of them had stayed in the woods. Brother wolves, or, he mused, cousin wolves anyway.
Catcher bit back tears as he gazed down at Rafferty's sleeping form. He'd done it, left civilization behind to stay with his stunted cousin. What dedication, what loyalty, what sentimental stupidity.
'Raff, you idiot. I don't care what you said. You don't belong out here,' he hoped Rafferty could hear his mental screaming. There was a sense of resigned knowledge that whatever had happened his cousin would be steadfast at his side. Living a lie, for him. For the rest of his life.
Catcher scented a river nearby. Perfect. He silently circled the clearing several times to confuse his direction then quietly padded away. He called out a silent goodbye. He would use his last moment of clarity and clear headed common sense to force his cousin's hand.
'Go home.' When he was far enough away that Rafferty wouldn't be awakened by the sound, Catcher took off at a run seeing the forest around him through a tear streaked blur.
-
Chys: So, how am I doing? Any places to improve?
------- Chapters 8 and 9 are written, but need typed and edited. Chapter 10 is a writing in progress...