the killing kind - (lgbt | onc 2022)

9

word count: 2462
total word count: 20126

Mandy and Laura were shouting something—actually, everyone was shouting, and someone was trying to pull Jasper away from him—but Jasper was all Kavi could see, all he could focus on. The only thing he heard was his breaths, muffled against Kavi's shoulder as he clung to him, refusing to let him be dragged away.

"Kavi. Kavi, let go."

"No. No!"

"Kavi!"

Someone finally tore Jasper away—one of the men from the other party who'd been playing. Distantly, as if through a fog, Kavi could see Alec, Mandy and the bowling alley manager clustered around her and talking urgently, voices overlapping. Her sobs filled the gaps between their words; the music had been shut off. Blood slicked across the shiny wooden floor, from pooling beneath the table someone had laid her out across to dragged in crimson streaks wherever Jasper's stained hands had found purchase. Kavi's own face was wet with Alec's blood, he realized.

Laura bent over him, easing him off of the floor. Pain erupted in his spine, making a shuddering gasp leave his lungs.

Jasper had fallen back, bloody hands gripping the sides of his body, eyes huge and horrified. His entire lanky frame trembled.

The door burst open again. Kavi expected Declan—

Instead, heavy boots hit the floor in frantic steps, and the shouted order was one that didn't register in Kavi's mind, but the tone of voice sure as hell did—sharp, authoritative, and absolutely used to getting whatever it demanded.

Kavi lunged out of Laura's worrying hands and towards Jasper, placing himself firmly between him and the three soldiers who stormed through the door. Two men and a woman; the red-head who'd visited Ashwell previously was nowhere to be seen.

"There he is," one of them snapped. All of them bore rifles and long hunting knives that stuck out of their belts. "Get him."

"Kavi—" Jasper's voice wasn't much more than a whimper.

One of the men took a step forward, and in a single paralyzing moment, Kavi made his decision. His hand found the grip beneath his shirt and he tugged, freeing the handgun and pointing the barrel at the soldier.

Someone shrieked, and instantly all three rifles were stabbed in his direction, the intruders falling back into defensive stances with their firearms raised.

"Don't take another fucking step," Kavi snapped, voice trembling more than he would've liked. Anger was swelling at the forefront of his skull, blindingly hot.

"Put the gun down," the soldier said, lining him up in his sights. The other two, Kavi realized dimly, were focused on Jasper. Not him. Even with a live gun in his hands, he wasn't as dangerous as Jasper was.

He would show them. His finger twitched as he switched off the safety.

"Kavi!" Laura this time. She edged into his peripheral vision, a forced-calm expression on her face. He'd never seen her panic, but she looked closer now than ever before.

He wasn't sure how the soldiers had found them, or what they were doing here in the first place, but he didn't care. He tightened his grip on the gun and pointedly ignored her.

"Kavi, listen to me," she said.

"Peace, right?" He snarled in return. "Even at a cost."

His sights were lined up squarely on the soldier's face, and the gun felt like an old friend in his grasp. He wouldn't miss if he pulled the trigger; he knew he wouldn't.