The Stains Beneath Our Skin [mxm] ✔

34.2 | Slicker Tongue

Soon as the gust billowed past Casper and hit him, Cain spun. His hair lifted like he stood beneath the water and the air guttered black around him. Cold battered Casper. Then hot. Then ice. Then a crackle of white lightning stormed against Cain's fog and seriously, Casper was way too mundane for this fucking shit. Skin crawling, heart pounding, he sprinted to the edge of the clearing that didn't have warring sorcery clashing where he'd been standing.

Levi had lost his jacket, but he still looked just as gross and sleazy as he had that night. Skin-tight leather jeans and calf-high leather boots and a crimson and gold brocaded shirt unbuttoned far enough down his chest that it hung loose off one shoulder. No Ella, and that put Casper's hackles right on end.

"Cassie, darling!"

Eyes wide, avid, Levi flicked his fingers, batting a lash of Cain's black sorcery away with white lightning. In the near-quiet, those lilting words clung to Casper's skin like corpse-flower honey. Nausea swelled in Casper's gut. Boots catching on each other as he stumbled back.

No. No, no, no.

He pressed his eyes closed and drew in a shuddering breath, but all that stained the insides of his lids was the lizard grin.

Levi laughed, an idle elegance to his steps as he strolled into the clearing. Magnetic, that's what he was. Black water drowned Casper whenever he looked at Levi, but he just ... couldn't drag his eyes away. The violent delight that coloured each movement, the chilling precision beyond predator to god.

A splash of pink slid between his sharp, white teeth, and Levi spread his hands to Casper. "Looks like you've been lying to me, Cassie. Didn't I already tell you how much I hate being lied to."

Play it right, Roach. Play it right. Knees like fucking jelly and his skin a sweaty mess, but he'd spent his whole fucking life learning how to fake taking it easy 'cause he wasn't going nowhere as a rent boy if he crumbled every damn time he got scared.

He could do it. Even if those dead eyes ate him up like a hyena picking through its prey.

Casper pushed his shoulders back and crossed his arms and twisted up his face, rolled his eyes like he couldn't believe this was his fucking luck. Not even any need to stop himself trembling because this guy had already seen him crying to be let go. But hey, this time he was sober so he could at least put on a front.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

Perfectly still, Levi tilted his head. Probably toward Cain but Casper couldn't look away to see. Cain's here though. Cain will make it alright. Cain won't leave me.

Right?

"Do I have to act it out for you, Cassie darling?" The damp grass squeaking against his boots, Levi picked up an idle stroll across the clearing. Aimless. Predatory.

Getting closer.

"Honestly," he said. "I do crying and begging brilliantly – your Jack could've found out if he'd just left his number after giving me such a..." He drew a deep breath in through his nose, fingers wriggling, and grinned. "Mm, no one's given me that good a time since Killer last killed me. But as it goes"—Levi stabbed his finger at Cain, the rapturous expression contorting to something bored and deadly—"the situation makes me disinclined. You're a little fucking liar, Cassie."

Shit. Casper swallowed hard. Good thing he couldn't fucking force himself to look away from this predator running tendon between its teeth, because otherwise the look he'd be giving Cain would give everything away. Even his lungs shook, but Casper forced himself to scowl.