Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2010 19:27:59 -0600
From: Katya_Dee <concertoind@gmail.com>
Subject: Debts, chapter 2

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction; all the resemblances are just
eerie coincidences. Everything in the story is owned by myself beloved,
everything is copyrighted. Contains descriptive sexual scenes between males
- don't read it if you shouldn't.

Note: This is a 3rd installment in the semi-series. The first story is
Specter's Gamble </nifty/gay/sf-fantasy/specters-gamble/> and the second
one is The Year of the Salamander
</nifty/gay/sf-fantasy/year-of-the-salamander/>

I would recommend reading those first (at least Specter's Gamble)
otherwise, some scenes and characters are not going to make much sense,
since you wouldn't be familiar with the background and I didn't describe
much of the previous events in this story. Other than that, enjoy! Feel
free to e-mail me.



- II -

So it was, in fact, possible to rob the psychotic blond, he mused later that
evening while going through the man's wallet. There was nothing of interest
in there -- several rather large bills (which he would definitely use), a few
credit cards (which he would dispose of), a couple of business cards, and a
driver's license. Raven looked at the license.

"So he is thirty-six," he muttered after looking at the birth date, thinking
that Salamander was only two years older than Raven himself. "Benedictus..."
he hemmed at the blond's middle name. "Figured that someone like him would
have a snot-up-the-ass name..."

Finally, he shoved the wallet into one of the drawers and slammed it shut.
Since part one went so unbelievably smoothly, it was time for part two. Now,
part two would be trickier. A lot trickier, he frowned slightly. He decided
to get into the blond's house this time and scout around a bit. Hell, if he
is lucky, he'll just get that damn rock right then and there. He knew that
Salamander lived alone; he didn't have any pets; and every single member of
his impressive staff (servants, house-cleaners, cooks) would leave at six in
the evening every night.

>From what Raven could tell so far, Julian didn't have any alarms on the
house, as if the mere idea of someone breaking into his home was beyond
ridiculous.

"It *is *beyond ridiculous," his inner voice said tiredly. "Raven, just
because you managed to get his wallet in the middle of a busy street,
doesn't mean you can break into his goddamn house! Or should, for that
matter!"

He shrugged to himself. He is going to do a test-run tomorrow and see how it
would play out. If everything goes smoothly (he was sure it would), he would
get inside the place on Friday night. He remembered the blond leaving the
house last Friday night around eight in the evening; the man didn't come
back until five in the morning on Saturday. Raven hoped it would be the same
deal this Friday as well. His inner voice heatedly called him several unkind
names, and Raven simply shut it off, even though he was agreeing with it
wholeheartedly.

****

On Wednesday evening, Raven was watching the big house, while
absent-mindedly lapping at another self-inflicted cut. He never enjoyed the
pain; therefore, the initial cut would always make him wince. He loved the
taste of blood, however. He would lap at his wounds until they gone dry and
nothing would come out. He had this bizarre fetish for as long as he could
remember. Once, when he was six, he sliced his finger open with a kitchen
knife. His first (natural) reaction was to start screaming bloody murder,
since it hurt rather badly. Then he looked at the flowing blood, and
suddenly, he was mesmerized. For the next forty-five minutes, he was sucking
on his finger, shaking with some weird hunger, the taste of blood making him
lightheaded. Then his Aunt came into the kitchen and flipped on the lights.

"What the hell did you do?" she asked with a tight frown after seeing the
spotted with blood knife. "Holy hell, Raven...! What did you do?"

"Nothing," he mumbled around his finger, still hungry for that divine taste.
"The knife slipped."

"It slipped onto what?" she demanded sharply, looking around wildly, as if
expecting to see someone's mutilated body. "Where is Rufus?" she said in a
suddenly shrieking tone. "Goddammit, Raven! Where is Rufus?!"

Rufus was her beloved cat -- Raven hated that thing. All claws, and teeth,
and extremely bad temper.

"I dunno," he shrugged, his finger still in his mouth.

"What did you do to Rufus...?" she almost screamed, and Raven pulled his
head into his shoulders.

His Aunt's temper matched Rufus' to the *t. *She almost smacked him right
then, but that was the moment when Rufus decided to let his mistress know
that he was hungry and quite upset about the fact.

"Rufus...!" she squealed in enormous relief and picked up the cat, whose
yellow eyes stared at Raven without blinking. "Clean this up," she commanded
shortly, after throwing a quick glance at Raven. "Next time the knife slips,
don't leave it like this, you understand?"

"Yeah," he muttered, and finally, pulled his finger out of his mouth. It
looked fine.

...He grimaced at the memory of the damn cat, and suddenly, straightened up,
without lowering his still bleeding wrist. The garage slowly opened, and
Salamander's car pulled out into the street. Raven glanced at his watch.
7:30. He frowned thoughtfully, wondering how much time he had before the
blond came back. It was Wednesday night, so he didn't think that Julian
would be gone too long. He would have to be at one of his offices at eight
tomorrow morning, and from what Raven could tell, the blond would get at
least five hours of sleep every night. That left him with at least an hour;
maybe more, he wasn't sure. He waited until the car was gone out of sight,
waited for ten more minutes, just to be safe, and then he quickly walked
towards the house without even bothering to glance around and see if anyone
noticed him or not. That would never happen -- people don't notice things
they can't see, and right now, Raven was nothing but heartbeat and breath.
His ability was perfect for someone who would choose his profession.
Invisible thief -- what could be better?

It took him five minutes at the most to get into the house, and he couldn't
believe how easy it was. "This is unreal," he thought with a grin, throwing
off the invisibility, since there was nobody in the house at the moment.
"Holy hell, this is bloody unreal...! And I thought it would be hard...!"

He decided to get familiar with the house tonight, so he wouldn't have to
worry about the floor plan on Friday night. The place was big, so Raven knew
that there was a good chance for him to waste precious time while trying to
figure out which room contained what.

He spent good forty minutes, walking all over the house, looking in
different rooms and closets, and imprinting everything into his memory. The
blond sure had good taste, he thought appreciatively while checking out the
library. "Holy shit!" he thought when he saw the paintings on the walls of
the library. "One that painting costs more than the entire bloody Plaza!" He
was gawking at the paintings, when suddenly, there was a sound of an engine
outside. Raven froze, listening very intently. Sure enough, a minute later,
there was a sound of the garage door opening.

"Goddammit!" Raven hissed and turned off the lights in the library,
immediately wrapping himself into the shroud of nonexistence. "Shit,
shit...!"

He carefully walked to the door of the library when he heard footsteps. He
took several quick, panicky steps backwards, and froze again when the door
swung open, and there he was -- Julian Salamander, switching on the lights.
Raven stopped breathing, praying to whoever came to his mind right now for
the blond not to hear his frantic heartbeat. Julian seemed completely
oblivious to the fact that he wasn't alone in the house, however. He threw
his keys onto the small mahogany table and walked towards one of the
bookcases. He stood in front of it for several excruciatingly long minutes,
frowning thoughtfully at the volumes. Raven could've sworn that the sound of
his heartbeat was insanely loud right now, but Salamander didn't even look
around; he simply stared at the books. Finally, he muttered something under
his breath, grabbed one of the volumes, and walked out of the library
without shutting the door behind him.

Raven let out a very soft and extremely shaky breath, trying to get his
shaking hands under control. Finally, he risked tiptoeing out of the
library, his steps absolutely silent, every single nerve in his body on high
alert. The hallway was empty. He glanced around quickly, trying to figure
out where was the blond. He saw the light underneath the door, which led to
the study. The light wasn't there before. "Okay," Raven nodded to himself.
"Okay, he is in there, reading his bloody book. Get out now!"

He silently slid towards the kitchen, figuring that it would be safer for
him to leave through the back kitchen door rather than trying to use the
front door or one of the windows. He was very close to the kitchen when
there were quick footsteps right behind him. He didn't have any time to dash
aside or to even take a single sideways step. He froze in his spot, almost
positive that he was beyond screwed right now, because invisible or not, he
was still very corporeal, and if Salamander runs into him, then there will
be one invisible thief less in this world. Not right now, of course, he was
sure of that. He would probably expire in a couple of days or so... Maybe
even a week.

The only reason Julian didn't slam into him was the fact that the hallway
was quite wide; that, and apparently the luck was still on Raven's side.
Julian walked so close to him that Raven could smell his cologne. He watched
the blond disappear in the kitchen, and considered going back, but then he
changed his mind and pressed his back hard into the wall instead. He had no
idea how long Julian would stay in the kitchen, and he didn't have a
slightest desire to test his luck again. He was positive, however, that the
blond would not walk this close to the wall, so he waited. Julian spent
maybe ten minutes in the kitchen at the most, but to Raven it felt like ten
hours. Finally, the blond came out of the kitchen with a tall glass in his
hand, and walked back towards the study. Raven stood by that wall for the
next several minutes. Partially, because he wanted to make sure that Julian
doesn't realize that he needs something else in the kitchen, but also
because his knees were shaking so bad right now, that he would probably trip
on his own feet and fall facedown onto the floor if he tried walking.

Finally, when he was positive he could walk, he silently went into the
kitchen and headed towards the back door. He almost made it outside when his
gaze fell upon a bottle on the kitchen counter. He paused and looked at the
bottle closer. "Holy hell," he thought and glanced behind him. It was a
bottle of the old Laperone cognac. Raven knew his booze, and he was
perfectly aware of the fact that Laperone was an extremely good brand;
extremely good, and even more so expensive. He looked at the year when it
was made, and almost moaned. The damn thing was almost seventy years old.

He glanced behind him once again. Finally, he shrugged, grabbed the bottle,
and left that house for good, making sure he keeps himself invisible until
he got all the way to his apartment.

****

The entire Friday, Raven felt like he was about to have the worst dentist
appointment of his life. At the same time, however, he felt so exhilarated
and high, that it reminded him of good old days he used to experiment with
some of the drugs that were supposed to be highly addictive the minute you
tried them. In Raven's case, it wasn't true; he couldn't speak for anyone
else, but when it came to addictions, he was immune, or so it seemed. The
only thing he would keep coming back to was his blood-drinking habit. His
own blood, that is. He tried doing it on several of his partners, but they
would inevitably freak out, so finally, he gave up and decided to stick to
his own blood. He knew that someone else's life-force (that what the blood
was -- it was a life-force!) felt and tasted a hell of a lot better than his
own, but it seemed that for some strange reason, people didn't get excited
at the idea of someone sucking their blood. Not even when Raven would do his
best at reducing the pain -- people freaked out. That was the end of story.
Try drinking (sucking, whatever) someone's blood, and they will never call
you again. Better yet -- they will pretend they don't even know you if you
happen to run into each other nose to nose in the street.

Therefore, Raven decided to stick to his own *("life-force") *blood several
years ago. Cuts hurt, yeah, sure, but the payback was very well worth it. He
had no idea how many times he sliced his wrist today. He looked at it and
sighed. The inside of his left wrist was crisscrossed with tiny white scars.
Even his fast healing didn't help; he would cut himself so often that the
cuts never had enough time to heal and disappear completely. He shrugged and
slid on his leather wristband, hiding the scars underneath it. He would
always wear this wristband; he didn't want someone to see his wrist and to
think that he was a walking and talking failed suicide attempt. He glanced
at the clock. 7:30. Okay, he thought and took a deep breath. Here goes...

...The blond didn't leave the house until almost 8:30 in the evening, and
Raven started panicking slightly, wondering if Julian decided to stay home
tonight. Right when he started swearing softly, the garage door slid up
smoothly, and the very familiar by now car pulled out into the street.

"Finally..." Raven muttered with relief and left his wrist alone.

He waited for ten minutes, just like he did on Wednesday night, and then he
crossed the street and got inside the house. Tonight, it took him less than
two minutes to unlock the door. "All right," he thought while making his way
deeper into the house. "A rock... A green fucking rock... Hell, I still
don't believe that someone would pay that much money for a rock...!"
Finally, he shrugged to himself. People had strange obsessions, and as long
as he got paid, he could care less. He remembered what Magda told him about
the rock. "It's green," she said with a thoughtful frown. "Like, deep-green,
you know...? And it's about this big..." she spread her hands ten inches
apart. "It's oval-shaped... They said it's like a perfect oval," she frowned
again. "Umm, yeah," she nodded. "That pretty much covers it."

Deep-green, oval-shaped, ten inches long bloody rock. Raven paused in the
doorway of the library, frowning thoughtfully. It wasn't in here, he knew
that. He scanned the library quickly with his eyes, just to make sure, and
then went into the study. He spent almost half an hour in there and found
nothing. He glanced at the clock.

"Goddammit...!" he muttered with irritation. It was already after nine
o'clock. The house was big, huge even, and looking for a ten-inch-sized rock
in here was pretty much the same ordeal as looking for that infamous needle
in a haystack. The damn rock could be anywhere. It would fit into any
drawer, shelf, or cabinet. It could even be outside in the back yard for all
he knew -- it was a rock after all... He thought about the mahogany table in
the library, and remembered that it had two drawers. He tutted with great
annoyance when he realized that he never looked in those drawers.

The study was rock-free, that was definite. Raven sighed, turned off the
lights, and quickly walked back to the library. The drawers contained
several old coins, a couple of city maps, a small stack of envelopes, and
that was it.

"Goddammit," Raven said again and slammed the drawer shut.

He thought for a minute and went into the office. He flipped on the lights
and looked around. The office was as impressive as the rest of the house.
Raven couldn't help but admire blond's taste once again. Everything in the
house was ridiculously expensive, but not a single thing seemed obnoxious or
out of place. Everything fit together, down to the last hand towel in each
bathroom. Raven cursed quietly when he realized that he would have to check
the bathrooms as well. There were four of them.

He was looking on the shelves of the bookcase, checking behind thick volumes
and CD cases, when he heard a very familiar sound of the engine outside. He
blinked and looked at the clock.

"What the..." he muttered in disbelief. It was only 9:45 in the evening. He
didn't expect Julian to come back until well after midnight. "Shit!" he said
in desperate whisper and quickly walked towards the light switch. He flipped
it off and immediately disappeared into nothing. He didn't dare to walk out
of the office, so he took several steps backwards, and froze in his spot,
hoping that Salamander simply forgot something in the house, and that he
would leave rather soon.

He couldn't believe his eyes when several minutes later, Julian walked into
the office, turned on the lights, and shut the door. His eyes grew even
bigger when he saw the blond locking the damn door and dropping the key into
his pocket.

"What the fu..." he started thinking in incredulous panic, when Julian said
in a low, purring voice:

"I know you are here."

Raven's heartbeat slowed down to nothing. Julian's eyes quickly scanned the
office.

"I know you are here," he repeated in the same low, purring drawl. "I saw
the lights from the outside," he let out a small smile. "I am sure you
didn't leave the office, figuring it would be safer to stay put,
therefore..." he smiled again, with the corners of his mouth this time. "I
know you are here," he nodded slightly. "Show yourself," the blond walked
towards the desk that was sitting in the corner. "Show yourself
willingly..." he leaned on the desk slightly. "...and it will win you some
points," he finished. "Believe me, with someone like me, you need all the
points you can possibly get..." He didn't smile this time, but his
intonation remained the same -- low and purring. "I am going to count to
three," the blond sighed after nothing changed. "If you don't show yourself
after I say `Three'..." there was that smile again. "I will find you myself,
and believe me when I say it, you are not going to like that. One..."

"Goddammit!" Raven thought desperately. He threw a quick glance at the
window, thinking that he might be able to crush through it. Then he almost
moaned out loud -- the damn window had bars on it.

"Two..." Julian studied his fingernail for a few seconds, his expression
rather curious.

"Shit-shit-shit!" Raven closed his eyes. "How in the bloody hell did he even
know...?"

"Three," the blond sighed and looked up.

"Fuck!" Raven thought and threw off the invisibility.



****

A little of shameless self-advertising. You can find all of my stories
here<http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=3895328> including
Debts.