City of Dragons: Of Flesh and Blood (16 page)

“So he rapes you?”

“No. Look, I know you Humans have all these hang ups about personal space, bodies, touching, whatever. But it doesn’t work like that for us. There is no such thing as rape, being gay, incest, any of those things. We aren’t like you. So just push it all out of your head.”

In a small voice Claire said, “Then tell me.”

Farley shifted in his seat, wondering who had put sandpaper in the ass end of his pants while he wasn’t looking. “In every clutch there is a survivor, sometimes two, and even more rarely three. The
need
is so strong you’re blinded by it. You’re so hungry you’d tear your own flesh off your bones and eat it. If you’re weaker than the rest, you’re going to die.” He looked at her then. “For us there is no such thing as being nurtured. You eat to survive, and if you wind up as Food, you have to give the one who hunts you a better reason to keep you alive. I did what I had to do to keep Darco from eating me. But because he let me live, he’s my Dominant.”

“Unless you
roll
him.”

Farley blinked twice and gave a nod. “But that’s not possible.” He stared at his hands, feeling guilty for having to explain himself and pissed off because he was actually doing it. “I’m not strong enough to
roll
him, Claire. I’m not strong enough to
roll
anyone. I’m nothing but Food. To him and to the Males in the Dens. I stay alive for one reason and that’s because I’m more entertaining to them breathing than I am dead.” He laughed but didn’t smile. “I’m good at what I do. No matter how much you’re disgusted by it. And I even enjoy it. That’s why I go back.”

“Except for Darco.” She made it a statement, and that was the only reason Farley didn’t get mad.

“Yeah, except for him. He’s cruel. For him it isn’t about
feeding
the
need –
it’s about humiliation, pain, drawing as much blood as possible.”

“And you’re not afraid he’ll kill you?”

The thought had crossed Farley’s mind a few times, especially on the Hatching Grounds. But killing him wasn’t his
Brother’s
goal. Farley wondered how he could soften the truth, then figured what the hell. “Darco won’t kill me. Killing me would end the fun. My death would mean he could never get to me again. And trust me, that’s the last thing Darco wants. No, he enjoys what he does to me way too much, and as much as I hate it, his favor for me helps keep me alive, especially when it comes to some of the really feral Dominants. They’re scared of Darco, too.”

Farley looked out the window at the House of Lin sitting a few rows over. The place was pretty full, but then it always was. There were a lot of happy, smiling faces in there. Human faces. He was willing to bet that none of them had any idea what survival really was. Humans were only lets-get-back-to-nature until it turned around and ripped off a limb.

Claire’s voice broke the silence. “My mom used to beat the hell out of my dad.” Farley looked at her. She was staring at the restaurant. Was she thinking about the people in there, too? “Everyone thinks only a man can do something like that. But my mom…” Her throat worked up and down. “My mom used to do terrible things to him. She used to knock my sister and me around a little, but dad always got in the way.” Claire bit her bottom lip and her eyes went wide.

Farley could almost see her in the kitchen, living room, or maybe the front porch, during her stroll down memory lane, wherever it was those terrible things happened. Then it was gone.

Claire said, “Any how…My dad actually tried to get help. He went to the cops twice and a family friend.”

“What happened?”

Claire flipped her eyes up at him, and he got a good look at the scars those kinds of horrors could leave behind on the Human soul. “They laughed at him.” Her nose reddened, and she swiped her hand under one eye real quick like it was no big deal. “They told him real men don’t get beaten up by women. Some of them accused him of being insensitive to her feelings.” When Claire inhaled this time, she sniffled. “He got my sister and me into college as far away as he could put us, and I never saw him again. Mom beat him up pretty bad one night, and he called Maggie and me in the dorm just to talk. But we knew by the sound in his voice – we knew mom had done a number on him. And of course, he didn’t go to the hospital because no one ever believed him.” Claire paused, and her hands twisted up in her lap. “We found out a week later he killed himself. Mom didn’t tell us. His brother came to the dorm and told us. He must have done it right after we talked. Mom didn’t even know he was dead until the next morning when she found him hanging in the shower. She’d taken one of her stupid sleeping pills and gone to bed.”

Farley found himself staring at Claire with a strange kind of wonder. Never in his life would he have imagined someone like her living through that kind of darkness. Maybe she knew more about survival than he’d given her credit for. “I’m sorry.”

Claire laughed and waved her hands as if shooing away everything she’d just said. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be a total buzzkill.”

Farley caught her hand and moved his thumb over her pulse. The muscles in her arms relaxed as he opened her fingers.

“You really want to learn about me?” Farley’s vision went bright. The crystalline auras outlining everything meant his Human eyes were sliding away and being replaced by liquid gold.

Claire managed a small nod, complete with a sound which vaguely resembled a yes.

“Then I’ll show you.” Farley pulled back his lips, flashing pointy teeth, and drew a hot, wet line with his tongue across the palm of her hand.

Haley kept her attention on the road, but watched Deshi in her peripheral. He smelled like panic while he waited for Emily to answer the phone. And when she did, his eyes clenched shut as if he’d been punched.

“Hi…” Deshi grimaced. Haley could hear Emily’s high-pitched voice from the other side of the tinny speaker as she lit into him. Deshi sat there, silent, his jaw clenching, the lines around his eyes getting tighter and tighter. When there was a pause, he said, “I know. I just had to get out of the house. A friend’s. No. Yes. No, I know.” He was quiet again while she yelled at him some more. “Yes, of course, I love you.” Haley winced. “No, no. I know. Honey…please.” The hand in his lap balled up so tight his knuckles cracked. “Please, Emily, not this, not right now.” Deshi’s breath shuddered, shaking his entire body. “No, please.” He leaned forward until the seatbelt stopped him. “Emily…”

Haley couldn’t stand it anymore. “Give me the phone.” She held out her hand. Deshi shook his head. “That wasn’t a request, Deshi. Give it to me. Now.”

His blue eyes widened, and his hand extended, putting the phone just within her reach. Haley snatched it and caught the tail end of Emily’s rampage.

“Emily, this is Haley.” The woman went quiet, but Haley could hear her breathing. “Okay, I’m going to make this short and sweet. Deshi isn’t coming back home until you unsubscribe him from the beat-the-hell-out-me-sweepstakes you’ve signed him up for.” The woman drew a breath . Haley cut her off. “Stop right there. I don’t care. I don’t want to care. And nothing you can say will change my mind. This is how it’s going to be. Because if you don’t do as I say, then I’m going to make a phone call to Deshi’s Mother in Jersey City and tell her you’ve been letting a Half-Breed
feed
off of him. And trust me, the temper tantrum she threw when you had him cut out his Nevus will look like a Disney movie.” Deshi reached for the phone, but Haley stopped him with a glare.

She put her eyes back on the road.

After a long pause Emily said, “You have no right. He’s my husband.”

“Yup. He is. All that holy matrimony death-till-you-part shit will get put to the test, too. ‘Cause let me tell you something, Emily, there isn’t an insult much greater than a Half-Breed
feeding
on one of us. Especially to a Queen. Especially when it concerns her Son.”

“Was he with you last night?”

Even over the phone, Haley could feel her anger. “Yeah, he was. Farley was there too. We all slept in the same bed, took a shower at the same time, even washed each other’s important parts to start off the day.” A small, strangled sound leaked out of the speaker. And damn, if it didn’t put a big, fat grin on Haley’s face. “And you know what else, Emily? Deshi knows you’re pregnant. So don’t do anything stupid while he’s away for a few days. ‘Cause if you’re not pregnant when he gets back, I’ll make sure his Mother hears about that, too.”

“You don’t scare me! And what I do with my body is none of your fucking business.”

“You’re right on both accounts. Number one, it’s not me you have to be scared of, it’s his Mother. As for the second part, you’ve got a piece of Deshi inside you, which makes your body his Mother’s business, at least in her mind. So unless you want to wind up giving birth in the belly of the Dens, I would suggest you be a little nicer to Deshi. ‘Cause while he loves you and would walk through fire--or in your case let Half-Breeds fuck him,
feed
from him, and beat the hell out of him while you watch--I couldn’t care less if you live or die. So if nothing else will motivate you to stop raining bitch all over him, that should.”

Emily’s breathing hitched. “I want to talk to Deshi.”

“Only if you’re going to tell him that you love him and you miss him and then say goodbye. Otherwise, this phone is going out the window, and he won’t come home until I let him.” Emily made a sound, but Haley cut her off. “Emily, do not test me. I am not in my happy place right now, and I mean every word I say.” She gave the woman a second or two, then added, “Okay, I’m handing him the phone.” Haley held the phone out to Deshi. His eyes rolled down. He stared at the cell phone as if it might bite. Haley gave it a little jiggle, and he took it.

“Emily?” Deshi’s face clenched, but after a few seconds he relaxed. “I miss you, too. Yes, and I love you, too. I’ll call you as soon as I can. Yes, I promise.” He closed the phone and stuck it into one of the many pockets of the skaters he wore. The Jersey City Prince stared out the windshield for a while.

He said, “You didn’t have to do that.”

Haley didn’t hesitate. “Yeah, I did.”

“You scared her.”

“And I’m supposed to feel sorry or something?”

Another long silence, then, “Would you really tell my Mother?”

Haley thought about that for a minute. If she did, it would bring a shit storm of new problems. And the chance of Emily’s face winding up on the back of a milk carton was easily nine-to-one odds. Finally she said, “If it meant protecting you from her, yeah.”

Deshi gave a little nod as if he hadn’t expected anything less.

Farley smiled while Claire picked the mushrooms out of her Mu-shu beef and lined them up on the edge of her plate.

“Did you get that”—she made a gesture with her chopsticks—“Faerie you were looking for?”

He almost answered her around the teriyaki beef he had stuffed in his mouth, then thought better of it. Haley was always on him about his table manners. Farley chewed and swallowed. “Naw, Rent-A-Cops kind of broke up my party.

“So that means you’ll have to go back to the Dens?”

He nodded and guzzled his soda. “Yeah, and with Haley out of town, I’ll have to stay at my apartment. Better than the alley though. Damn, and I thought the rats in my place were big.”

Across the table Claire picked at her plate. “How long is Haley on vacation?”

Farley shrugged. “A week.”
Less if we’re lucky
. “She got suspended for five days until they finish their INI on the incident.” He stirred the bits of onions and peppers on his plate, then waved his hand at the waitress standing near the doorway. She flashed him a smile and a nod, held up one finger, then two. Farley responded by showing her two.

Farley piled the onions on his plate into a mound. He pointed to the mushrooms on the edge of Clarie’s dish. “You gonna eat those?” She shook her head so he added them to the onions. “Man, I love this place.”

“Yeah, but they always make us sit in the storage area.”

It wasn’t really the storage room. The door looked out into the main dining area, and there were at least two more tables back here. Granted, the ice machine could be a little noisy, but it was clean.

Farley glanced up at Claire. “At least they let me sit inside. Most of them don’t.” She frowned. He heaved a shrug. “It’s no big deal, Claire, seriously.”

“I think it’s wrong.”

Farley shook his head. “They have their rules. It makes them feel safe. I can live with that.” He ate the onions and mushrooms.

Claire leaned forward. “It’s discrimination. They shouldn’t treat you like that. It’s against the law to treat people differently because of the color of their skin. This is no different.”

When Farley glanced into the outside room, he saw his two plates of food weaving through the crowded tables. The waitress set both down on the table and took the empties. She asked Claire if she wanted to keep hers, but Claire shook her head. Farley frowned. She’d barely eaten half a plate, and he wanted to watch her eat. It was better than porn and twice as tasty.

When the waitress left, he pulled the plate closer and dug in. Claire’s eyes practically burned a hole in the top of his head while she waited for him to answer.

In between bites he said, “It’s not discrimination.”

“How can you say that?”

He shrugged. “It just isn’t. I mean, what is discrimination anyhow? It’s putting what you prefer over what you don’t. You discriminated against your mushrooms. Should you be punished for having a preference?”

Claire made an unhappy sound. “That’s not the same thing, and you know it. You’re a person. You have feelings. You deserve better.”

“And you sound like you’ve been reading the MKFK literature they keep leaving on everyone’s windshields.” Farley took another bite, chewed, and talked. “Look, I know it bothers you because you think everyone deserves the same.” He made a stirring motion in the air with his chopsticks. “But that’s not how things work, nor how they should work. Your society has just muddied it all up. In the Dens you’re either
food
or sex, and where you sit on the dominance scale decides that. If you want to be higher up, then you have to fight for it. And if you aren’t willing to fight, then you stay where you are.” He gave a shrug. “Much easier that way.” The look on Claire’s face said she didn’t agree. Fine. Farley expected nothing less.