Spooks & Specters: A San DeLain Short Story Collection

Chapter Two

THE NEXT two weeks, Don stayed away, then suddenly he showed up at Kit’s apartment with dinner, roses, and a smile. After much groveling, Kit had moved out of the way and let Don come inside. A little voice in the back of Kit’s head screamed to just shut the door in Don’s face, but the apologies and thoughtfulness touched Kit.

Later that night Don touched Kit.

The next morning Kit stood in his bathroom glaring at the bruises along his hips. The sex had started off great, then suddenly Don became more… animalistic—grunting and growling, holding Kit too tightly, and not listening when Kit told Don that he was hurting him.

“Enough is enough.”

Disgusted, Kit turned away from the mirror and stepped into the shower. It was time to cut Don loose. After all, there were plenty more fish in the sea.

KIT WAS in his office, working on his computer, when his door opened suddenly. Aggravated, Kit looked up. He really needed to get inventory done before they got an upcoming shipment in Monday.

Don stood in the doorway, and there was someone behind him.

“What the hell do you want?”

Kit snapped. He didn’t have time for this, dammit.

The guy behind Don shoved him, and Don stumbled inside. Unease washed over Kit as the other guy calmly stepped into Kit’s office and shut the door like he owned the place.

“He is as feisty as you claimed,”

the stranger said.

“Who are you? What’s going on? Don?”

Kit had a bad feeling about this. A really, really bad feeling. And holy shit, why was Don doing this?

“Just don’t hurt him, Nox. Please,”

Don said quietly.

“Or what? What would you do if I did?”

the stranger snapped.

Don looked down at the floor.

“That’s right. Nothing. You will do nothing. Now shut up.”

Fear tightened Kit’s throat as he heard the door being locked. Why were neither Don nor the stranger reacting to Don using the stranger’s name? That didn’t bode well at all, according to those murder shows.

Kit didn’t know what was going on, but he wanted both of them gone. He especially wanted that stranger out of his office. There was something dark and menacing about the man called Nox.

He was actually very attractive with his tanned skin and dark hair and eyes. But those eyes were cold and empty. Dead. If eyes were the windows to the soul, then this man lacked one.

“I’m sorry, Kit. So sorry. I didn’t have a choice.”

“Wh-what? What do you mean? Sorry? Sorry for what?”

This didn’t sound good. Oh God, was he going to die in his own damn office? “What do you mean, you didn’t have a choice? A choice about what?”

Kit wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know.

Don didn’t say anything, just stepped out of the way as Nox prowled toward Kit. The insane thought crossed his mind that he had read in romance books about a character prowling, but he’d never really stopped to think about what it looked like.

And why had he ever thought it was sexy? There was nothing sexy about this. In fact, Kit distinctly felt like prey. Nox lowered his chin slightly as he stared at Kit and slowly walked forward. The asshole was enjoying Kit’s fear.

Run! Kit’s brain screamed.

But there was nowhere to run to. There was only one door out of his office, and Don was standing by it. There was also a window, but Kit couldn’t see himself bailing out of that, either.

“I can’t wait to taste you,” Nox said.

And that did it. Kit’s hindbrain kicked into action at those creepy words. He grabbed his desk chair and chunked it at the asshole coming around the desk. Kit fled to the other side and made a beeline straight toward Don, who stood between him and freedom.

As he drew closer, Kit nearly tripped over his heels when Don’s eyes flickered yellow… then stayed that color.

His eyes were yellow.

Yellow.

Yellow.

What the fuck? Eyes didn’t do that—they didn’t turn yellow. That wasn’t a color eyes fucking turned.

Human eyes, Kit’s brain helpfully supplied as he rushed Don. Human eyes don’t turn that color.

Kit swung at Don with everything he had. He might have an androgynous look with delicate features, and his long hair only added to the femme look, but he’d been raised running wild in a commune. He could hunt, fish, and fight.

His fist connected with Don’s chin, and pain ricocheted up his arm. Kit swore loudly and grabbed his hand. Since when was Don’s chin made of cement?

Don didn’t so much as even flinch, although there was sadness in his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Don, plea—”

Nox grabbed Kit by the shoulder and swung him around. Kit’s ankle turned, and he fell into the stranger’s arms.

“Perfect,”

Nox said, wrapping one arm around Kit as he sank his other hand into Kit’s hair, yanking his head to the side.

Kit fought, not that it did a damn bit of good. The power in those arms that held him trapped was astounding.

Inhuman.

Kit opened his mouth to scream—why hadn’t he thought to do that before?—and he caught a glimpse of fangs coming at him. What kind of nightmare was he living in? Only animals had fangs, not… not humans.

Then every thought was washed away in agonizing pain as those fangs sank into his throat. His struggles grew less as his arms fell to his sides, as if they weighed a thousand pounds. Terror still rolled through him, but drowsiness swept over him as the monster at his throat drank. He could literally feel the tugs against his vein as his blood was pulled from his body.

Nausea rose swiftly. This… this thing had bitten him and drunk his blood. Silence began to creep into his head as the voices that screamed at him to escape slowly became muted. Then it stopped, and Nox released him. Kit fell to the floor at Nox’s feet. Dizziness made him blink as he stared up at the monster who had bitten him, only the monster now looked exactly like Kit.

Exactly like him. Only, that wasn’t possible. Yet there Kit was, looking up at himself.

“What the fuck are you?”

Kit whispered.

“Something you’ve never heard of. Now, where do you keep your cell phone?”

Nox asked.

Kit shuddered. Not only did Nox look like him, he sounded like him. The question made no sense, though.

“If it’s not on him, then it’s most likely in his purse.”

Don snorted. “He’s a guy, but he carries a purse.”

“A very good-looking guy, so do not make fun of him. Too bad I don’t have time to play with him, but needs must.”

Kit trembled as his look-alike ran his hands over him, looking for the cell phone.

“Not on him. So where does he keep his purse?”

“Usually the bottom drawer in his desk,”

Don replied. “If it’s not there, I don’t know where it is.”

“Let’s hope that it is, otherwise, all of this has been for nothing,”

Nox said as he dragged Kit behind the desk and dropped him.

Kit wanted to fight being moved, but his body absolutely refused to obey him. When Nox bit him, had he injected something into Kit?

“Oh, perfect. One cell phone.”

Nox played with it, then frowned. “What’s the code to unlock it?”

“78562,”

Don answered.

Kit’s head dropped to the floor. He hadn’t even noticed that Don had ripped off his passcode.

“You look just like Kit,” Don said.

“Of course I do, you idiot.”

Nox rolled his eyes. “I’m going to head out front, and you leave.”

“Yes, sir.”

Nox took something out of his pocket, then pressed it, but Kit had no idea what it was or why he did it.

“There. Now we’re ready.”

Ready for what?

KIT HEARD his office door open.

“So predictable,”

Nox said, pulling his hand out of the duster’s pocket. He slammed the hypodermic needle into Maia’s carotid artery as she passed him.

He shoved her into the office, then spun and grabbed Austin by the arm, yanking him into the room too.

“Maia!”

Austin yelled.

“You know, this was easier than I thought,”

Nox said, pulling Austin against his body and then wrapping his arm around his throat. Reaching back with his other hand, he locked the office door.

“You’re Nox.”

“Figure that out, did you?”

“What did you do to Maia, asshole?”

“Now, now, that’s no way to talk.”

Nox tightened his arm around Austin’s neck.

“Stop!”

Maia cried, fighting to get to her feet. She immediately fell back to her knees. “You’re choking him!”

“Say please,”

Nox said to Austin.

“Please.”

“There you go,”

Nox said, easing the pressure on Austin’s throat. “See? That wasn’t so hard, now, was it? Play nice, darling.”

“Maia. W-what did you… did you inject Maia with?”

“Just a little something one of my labs has been working on. It’s nothing poisonous, just a little sedative. Something to keep her out of my way, but she’ll get to watch what I do to you before she passes out. Won’t that be fun?”

“Fuck,”

Austin swore softly.

“Or, and hear me out here, she can leave and go find Kage. Tell him to come here, alone and unarmed. We need to talk.”

“I’m not leaving Austin!”

Maia yelled.

“Fine. You can watch what I do to him, and then he can watch me slit your throat.”

Austin shuddered. “Jesus, Maia, go. Get Kage.”

Kit lay under the desk watching the scene play out in front of him. Questions raced through his mind. How did Austin know that thing wasn’t him? Who was Nox? How did that thing become him? Stuff like that didn’t exist outside of fiction.

He listened to the three of them argue. Then the woman… disappeared. Kit was positive his eyes were playing tricks on him because she basically stepped into a shadow and… and was gone.

Kit blinked. Surely he didn’t see that. Surely.

“And now we wait.”

“What did you do with Kit?”

Austin asked. “Tell me you didn’t kill him.”

Kit lay there quietly trying his best not to draw attention.

“I didn’t kill the human.”

Human?

“He’s laid out on the floor behind the desk. Did you know his boyfriend, Don Porter, is one of my hunters?”

What’s a hunter, and how did I not know Don was involved with this thing?

Kit listened to them talk, although none of it made sense to him.

Then Austin’s boyfriend, Kage, stepped out of the shadows. “I’m here.”

Kit blinked again. This time he was positive he saw what he thought he saw. Kage and that other woman had used shadows to… what? Travel? It shouldn’t be possible, and it absolutely made no sense, but that’s what they did. They aren’t human, either.

More words were thrown around, words like portal, daemon, and clan member, and nobody acted like anything was unusual about that. As Kit listened to Kage and Nox talk about past history, it slowly dawned on Kit that there was another world besides the one he was aware of. Apparently, Austin was part of it.

And apparently Austin had dragged Kit into this new world.

Then Nox suddenly jammed his fist into Austin’s throat, and Austin screamed as if he was in pain. Kage roared. Then he turned into something that Kit could only describe as a monster.

It kind of reminded him of the demons portrayed in the Christian Hell. There were wings and horns and… and black spots were dancing in front of Kit’s eyes.

It took a second for him to realize that he’d been holding his breath. As quietly as possible, he released it before he fainted. Out of all of them, Kit was the only one who was freaking out about what Kage had just turned into.