Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:22:00 -0600
From: Katya_Dee <concertoind@gmail.com>
Subject: The Dreamtrap - chapter 13

This is a story of fiction, all resemblances (dead or alive) are eerily
coincidental. Everything in the story is owned by myself beloved. Contains
descriptive sexual scenes between males, if you are not supposed to read it
then don't. Feel free to e-mail me.

****


*-* XIII -



            Raven had no idea which way they were going by now; the damn
labyrinth definitely lived up to its name, twisting, and turning, and
splitting into impossible forks. Desmond would pause for several seconds
once in a while, small frown pulling his eyebrows together, and then he
would choose the direction. Raven didn't argue with him; by now, he simply
didn't care. Desmond would inevitably start hissing scrambled profanities
every time they would end up in yet another dead-end, while turning around
and backtracking somewhat hurriedly. All of a sudden, Specter became
obsessively dedicated to finding the damn exit finally.

   Raven tried visualizing his sleeping self several more times, but he gave
up after realizing that he couldn't even visualize the bedroom, let alone
himself. It felt as if these mirrors blocked every single mental effort of
his.

   They came across several more illusions; a couple of those were nasty
parts of Raven's past, and a few apparently belonged to Desmond. They would
grit their teeth and keep on walking, ignoring the shadows, and breaking
them into clouds of white smoke. Finally, the illusions stopped, as if
whoever or whatever was creating them decided to give up, seeing that it was
useless, and far from entertaining by now.

   "I am tired," Raven said shortly after they turned into another dead-end.
"Break time."

   "Let's get to another intersection," Desmond said quickly, but Raven
shook his head and slid down onto the floor.

   "We will," he said firmly. "After my legs don't feel like they are about
to fall off!"

   Desmond let out a short, irritated sigh, but didn't argue, and slowly sat
next to the smaller man, stretching his legs with visible relief.

   "What happened all of a sudden?" Raven wished for a cigarette so much
that his teeth were aching. "You seemed like you would rather sit in one
spot, waiting for an exit to pop in front of us; and now, you are acting
like this place is about to explode within the next hour!"

   "That's because I didn't think that time might run differently in here,"
Desmond answered gloomily. "I don't want to be asleep for several years...!
My muscles will atrophy!"

   Raven hemmed at that.

 "Even if time does run differently here, I don't think it's *that *big of a
difference," he reasoned. "Plus, there is always a chance that it runs
faster on this side... Maybe when we wake up, only a couple of hours would
pass in reality..."

   "Maybe," Desmond said as gloomily as before.

   They sat in silence for several minutes. Suddenly, Desmond winced.

   "Will you stop thinking about the damn cigarettes already?" he demanded,
and Raven frowned.

   "I thought you said you didn't eavesdrop," he said evenly.

   "I am not," Desmond replied sharply. "It just feels like you shouting it
as loud as you can...! I need one too, and you are not helping, screaming it
out like this..."

   "Sorry," Raven sighed and tried switching his thoughts onto something
else. "So," he said a few minutes later, managing to shove the image of a
cigarette farther into the back of his mind. "How did you and your mate
meet?"

   Desmond looked at him with a small frown.

   "Why?" he asked suspiciously.

   "Making a conversation," Raven shrugged. "Keeps my mind off smoking."

   Desmond hemmed and relaxed somewhat, shifting slightly on the floor,
changing the angle of his legs.

   "He..." he smiled to himself. "He knocked me out in the alley one
night..." He glanced at Raven. "With a bat," he nodded. "Then he chained me
to a pipe in his house."

   "That's..." Raven said slowly. "...romantic," he finished with a slight,
confused nod. Desmond smiled again.

   "Actually, your mate is the one to blame for that," he said, and then
frowned slightly. "Come to think of it," he said thoughtfully. "I guess if
not for your mate, Rayhe and I would never meet... Holy hell..." he muttered
and shook his head. "What about you?" he looked at still puzzled Raven a
minute later. "How did you end up with Salamander? Did you attend one of his
soirees, started sucking his blood, and then love just bloomed...?"

   Raven laughed softly at that.

   "No," he shook his head. "I was supposed to steal something from him..."
He threw a quick glance at Desmond. "That rock," he said. "The one Magda was
after..."

   Desmond nodded a quick `I got it, go on.'

   "Well," Raven sighed. "He caught me," he said thoughtfully. "Because of
my own stupidity mostly," he grimaced.

   "What happened?" Desmond asked with genuine interest after the smaller
man fell silent.

   Raven smiled without baring his teeth.

   "He raped me," he said and looked at Desmond calmly.

   "Okay..." Desmond said slowly. "I thought you don't get off on pain..."

   "I don't," Raven smiled again. "And in the beginning, it *did *hurt..."

   "In the beginning," Desmond repeated.

   "Yeah," Raven looked into the mirror in front of him. "Then he changed
the angle somewhat, and hit just the right spot..." he sighed. "And in the
end..." he looked at Desmond again with the same calm smile. "I never came
so hard in my entire life," he nodded. "I hated the entire ordeal," he
continued thoughtfully. "Hated him, hated myself... Well, a couple of weeks
later, he found me... Started showing up at my apartment almost every day,"
he threw another quick glance at very thoughtful by now Desmond. "Just for
sex," he nodded.

  "Wasn't rape anymore, right?" Desmond asked in a low voice.

   "Wasn't rape anymore," Raven agreed. "Well, then several months later..."
He frowned for a second. "Sometimes in December, I think... That was when I
realized that I managed to fall for him..."

   "Apparently, it was mutual," Desmond said in the same low voice,
remembering that certain look in Salamander's eyes back in April when he
looked at Raven.

   "Yeah..." Raven smiled again. "Surprised the hell out of me," he nodded,
and then shrugged. "Anyway, that's how we ended up together..."

   "How does he get his pain fix?" Desmond frowned. "I mean, clearly, he is
not hurting you..."

   "He doesn't hurt *me*," Raven said without looking away from Desmond's
green eyes.

   "I see," the ex-assassin nodded slowly. "Do you even know whom he is
hurting?" he asked darkly.

   "If sex is involved, then yes," Raven nodded as calmly as before.

   "Takes one to know one," Desmond muttered and looked at his reflection,
away from Raven's different-colored eyes.

  "I suppose," Raven shrugged indifferently. "Wait," he frowned a few
seconds later. "What did you mean when you said that Julian was the reason
that you and Rayhe are together?"

   "Long story," Desmond said, still without looking at the other man. "Had
something to do with him trying to get his hands on me because I killed his
first mate a while ago..."

   "Oh yeah," Raven muttered. "Vivienne..."

   "Yeah," Desmond threw him a quick glance. "Her... Well," he shrugged with
a small, dark smile. "I guess he wouldn't get so worked up over her if he
knew that he wasn't the only one..." He cut himself off abruptly. "Never
mind," he shook his head quickly.

   Raven frowned at his slip of the tongue.

   "If he knew he wasn't the only one what?" he asked.

   "Nothing," Desmond shook his head once again. "Let's move it..."

   Raven frowned deeper without making a slightest attempt to get up.

   "Let's move it," Desmond repeated somewhat impatiently.

   "You slept with her, didn't you?" Raven asked quietly, and the green-eyed
man slowly leaned onto the wall behind him again.

   "I never said that," he said calmly without shifting his gaze.

   "You are not the type to let things to slip out," Raven looked at him
without a smile. "Why did you want me to know?"

   Desmond looked at him without saying anything and without blinking. Raven
let out a dark smile.

   "No," he said as quietly as before. "I am not going to tell him... Not
because of you, but because it would hurt him in the way he doesn't enjoy;
and I would never do that to him. If that makes me fucked-up in the head..."
he shrugged. "Then so be it."

   "Actually, *this *doesn't make you fucked-up in the head," Desmond said
in a low voice. "Other things? Hell, yeah; but this one actually makes you
anything but fucked-up..."

   "Good for me," Raven muttered and got up. "Let's move it."

   ...He followed Desmond silently; tight frown on his forehead, hands
shoved into his pockets. "Why did she do it?" he mused darkly without even
thinking that Desmond could have lied; somehow, he knew that the other man
was telling the truth. "Wonder if Specter was the only one..." He gritted
his teeth and pushed all those thoughts deep down into his mind, locking the
door and throwing away the imaginary key. "I am not going to think about it
again," he said silently. "I am not going to..."

   Suddenly, Desmond stopped abruptly, and Raven, who wasn't paying much
attention, lost in his dark thoughts, ran into him and stumbled backwards,
almost losing his balance.

   "What..." he started saying angrily after he managed to keep himself
upright, catching the mirrored wall just in time.

   "Shhh...!" Desmond threw his hand up without looking at him, and Raven
stopped talking.

   He glanced around warily, wondering what it was this time.

   "Do you hear that?" Desmond muttered after a few long seconds.

   Raven listened harder, and almost said, `Hear what?' when suddenly, he *
did*hear it. There was some strange, clanking sound somewhere ahead of them,
although it was difficult to tell the direction the sound was coming from
because of all the echoes.

   "Yeah..." he said slowly. "What the hell is that sound?"

   "I don't know..." Desmond cocked his head to the right, listening more
intently. "It sounds like it's getting closer..."

   Raven frowned deeper, the sound becoming vaguely familiar. He has heard
something like this before, he thought tightly. What was it...? He couldn't
remember and bit his lip in frustration rather harshly. Suddenly, he
remembered and looked at Desmond with wide eyes.

   "It's the sound of claws," he said quickly, and the green-eyed man looked
at him without blinking. "Claws on the hard floor," Raven nodded.

   They threw identically quick glances at the mirrored floor. Desmond
looked around, scanning every single mirror with his blink-free eyes.

   "Over there," he muttered and swiftly moved to the left.

   Raven followed him without asking any useless questions. He hated that
sound; he recognized it because his merciless memory flashed at him a bright
and clear image of Rufus walking slowly towards his food bowl, his long,
sharp claws making clanking impact with his Aunt's hardwood floor – his Aunt
never believed in clipping her pet's toenails. The sound they heard right
now was a lot stronger and louder, and Raven knew that whatever made that
sound was much bigger than a cat. It sounded like Rufus' claws multiplied by
twenty.

   They dove into the little corridor on their left, and Raven cursed in
hissing whisper – it was another dead-end.

   "Shhh...!" Desmond's hand flew up once again, and Raven pressed his back
into the wall, holding his breath.

   "Maybe it's just another illusion," he thought without making any noise.
"To scare all crap out of us..."

   Yeah, maybe that's what it was, but he was not going to take any chances.
Desmond slammed his back into the mirror right next to Raven, holding his
breath just as the other man did, without taking his eyes off the opening on
their right. After what felt like an eternity, something slowly walked by
their dead-end alcove, and Raven blinked rapidly when he saw what it was.
That thing looked like a nightmarish version of a Doberman; except, it was
at least twice as big, with glowing ruby-red eyes, and it was wearing
something that resembled horns.

   Raven pressed his back harder into the wall, locking his teeth on his
lip, swallowing every single sound that was about to emerge from his throat.
He had no idea whether this was an illusion, and he didn't have a slightest
desire to try and test it, because if it was real... Raven shuddered without
finishing his thought.

   The beast paused next to their alcove; its paw raised uncertainly, its
long, pointy ears jerking impatiently. Raven forced himself to stop
breathing. Finally, the beast relaxed somewhat and walked away from the
alcove, the sound of its nightmarish claws disappearing in the distance.
Raven slowly let out all that air he was holding in his lungs.

   "Was that an illusion?" he muttered almost inaudibly, and Desmond slowly
shook his head.

   "No," he whispered. "That was real..."

   Raven's back tingled with a harsh, unpleasant cold shiver.

   "How do you know?" he asked in the same tight whisper.

   "It had thoughts," Desmond turned his head towards the other man.
"Well..." he frowned quickly. "It had *one *thought..." he nodded. "Kill,"
he finished, and Raven just stared at him.

   "We need to get the hell out of here," he said finally in a low voice,
and Desmond nodded silently. "Let's go," Raven glanced into the mirrors,
making sure the corridor reflected nothing but emptiness. "Let's hope that
if there are any more of those, we would be able to hear them as well..."

   "Yeah," Desmond muttered, and they left their alcove, throwing around
wary, cautious glances.

 ****

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