Into the Darkness

Chapter Six

 “Hey, whaddya doing?” Charles stepped forward with Jonas toward the apartment complex, reaching a hand out to stop his brother-at-arms. “We’re just supposed to watch and make sure he doesn’t go wandering around. We’re not supposed to go in.”

“The Boss doesn’t care about this weasel. He only cares about the girl. Let’s have some fun.”

“Okay, but, the girl likes this guy, so the Boss wants this guy safe.”

“He’ll be plenty safe. I’ll take him to Third Three. He’ll be fine. Time of his life.” Jonas waited beside the door until a human, so unobservant it might as well have been blind, unlocked the apartment complex door and went through, completely missing their presence. Jonas stepped forward in a smooth, quick glide, catching the door before it clicked into its bed.

“This just isn’t a good idea,” Charles whined, following.

Jonas often pushed the envelope. His tastes generally bent toward pain, liking when his victims screamed and begged for their life. It wasn’t a perversion, per se, since being a hunter was in their genetic makeup, but it wasn’t exactly normal, either. The majority of their species leaned more toward wanton pleasure any way they could get it, with any one they could get it, pushed higher and harder with another willing participant. Oh sure, there were the dominance games, which could be fun, but all-in-all everyone was in it for a good time.

It was why Charles was supposed to keep an eye on Jonas—make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. Terrible idea, obviously. Jonas was one of the best they had, brutal without mercy and extremely effective. Charles was an up-and-comer with a lot of potential.

Which meant he’d get his ass kicked if he got in Jonas’s way.

They made it silently up two flights of stairs and down the hall without anyone noticing. As Jonas waited outside the human’s door, he snickered. “It’s almost too easy. These humans don’t notice nothing.”

“That’s because they don’t want to know what goes bump in the night when they’re safely behind their alarms and locks. That girl human does, though. She peeks right into the shadows and picks us out, remember? What’s with that? It creeps me out. We’re supposed to be the dominant species…”

“Shut up, I can hear him coming. I don’t want him to scream before I can Dose him. That’ll just get messy.”

Jonas knocked quietly. They heard three footsteps before the door swung open, a chubby male with a shock of orange hair holding a candy bar staring at them with round eyes. “Hello?”

“Who are you?” Jonas asked in a low voice, stepping into the small apartment. Charles followed quickly, scanning the corridor to make sure they weren’t seen.

“Whu—” The male’s face went slack.

“That worked fast,” Charles noticed, eyes dipping to this fellow’s stiffening dick. “He’s dim-witted, then? Is that why he succumbed so fast?”

Jonas stepped around the human male and walked to the back of the apartment in quick, smooth strides. “Some just have less defense against it. Doesn’t have much to do with their I.Q. Some of the dumb ones can really give you problems.”

“Oh.” Charles stepped away from the kid’s groping hands. “No thanks, bro, you’re not my type. Sorry. We didn’t know anyone else was home.”

 Jonas stepped out from the bedroom at the back of a frumpy apartment. “He’s not in his room.”

“Human male,” Charles spoke to the kid, and then danced away from outstretched arms, “where’s your friend?”

“Roommate!” Jonas yelled, stepping beside the male.

The kid turned to Jonas with huge eyes, his hands falling to his side. He started to tremble.

“Now, Jonas, bro, this isn’t the time for screaming,” Charles lectured. “You know what the Boss said; we’re supposed to keep a low profile tonight.”

“You nag.” Jonas tugged down his zipper, letting his pheromones change back to lustful coaxing. “Suck it in, Carrot Top, I ain’t got all day.”

“Jonas, Jesus—can’t you do that before we go out? We have stuff to do tonight.” Charles blew out a breath in impatience.

“Takes the edge off. Besides, these humans think they’re the masters of the universe. It’s good for them to know someone bigger is lurking around.”

The door handle of the front door jiggled just as Charles was about to complain again. The knob turned, revealing the tall, thin Jared they’d met a couple days ago.

 “What the—?” Jared froze, stunned.

“Howdy partner, good to see ya again. Let’s go ahead and invite you inside, huh?” Charles ushered him in, hitting him with a good Dose of pheromones to loosen him up. Human males had the propensity to scream with their first experiences with other men. They really needed to relax and just let the good times happen.

Which was exactly what Charles was helping him do with the Dose.

“What’s happening?” Jared stared down at his roommate.

Charles sighed, impatiently staring at Jonas. “C’mon, bro. Hurry this along. I’m getting a weird feeling we’re going to get caught.”

“The Boss is on the other side of the city. He’s dealing with a turf breach. We’re good. I’m… almost…” Jonas flexed.

Charles noticed two slim hands reaching for his crotch. He slapped them away and stepped toward the door. “I’m not in the mood, kid. Jonas, handle this guy, would ya?”

Breathless for a moment but not inactive, Jonas zipped up, and then stepped forward and slipped a bag over Jared’s head. Before Charles could protest, Jonas had the kid’s hands bound behind his back and over a shoulder.

 As they walked out the door, Charles asked, “Aren’t you going to mind wipe Carrot Top?”

“No time. We got what we came for, now we gotta go.”

All Charles could do was shake his head. He had a really bad feeling about all this.