filthy freaks

That trip to London had to have done something to their sanity. Hours on end trapped in a plane together, the dunk in the river, whatever had happened while they’d all been comatose and someone had been stupid enough to make a little trip to the zoo (he strongly suspected that had been Hannya, determined to push Hector’s rules just to see how long it would take him to explode). Little erosions that had left Hector and the others cracked enough to think this was a good idea.

Linc hauled the bubbling punch bowl up top of the lower bar – not far enough out of reach to stop Remzi or any of the reapers (they could’ve sealed the booze up in Hector’s safe and they still would’ve found a way in) but to discourage most looking for freebies. The smoke of what he hoped was dry ice was already rising from the lurid turquoise mix. They could’ve added real acid to it and most things in here would’ve just said it tickled. He brushed his hands off, reaching for the beer beside it. It didn’t matter that he was impervious to all that stuff, or that it was Halloween, he was sticking to the sensible, because when the clank of those doors upstairs came, he had no intention of being too insensible to get to the little lock up Magnus had arranged for him. And Cassie.

His gut didn’t know whether to twist with concern or to bubble up into his throat like the punch. Linc looked up, caught the eye of a member with a mouthful of needle like teeth that had to be real, and realised, definitely twisting for now. Most of them looked human on a daily basis, hiding what they were behind fancy suits and polite smiles, but these things were like Hannya, glossily surfaced monsters that would suck your soul dry if you let them. ”Get you a glass?” he offered, hooking a thumb back towards the lined up crystal goblets.

”Vodka,” the thing hissed around those teeth. No please. No thank you when he deposited in front of him. Why bother with manors when you were gonna eat someone’s face later?

His fingers were cold from the bottle he’d dragged out of the freezer cabinet behind the bar as he scrubbed them into his eyes. No more horror films for any of them, no more ideas entering empty heads for the sake of fun. They’d all had enough of it for a lifetime, but some of them were taking that way too far. If it wasn’t for Magnus he’d have risked taking the shine off of Cassie’s smile again for a second year in a row, determined to make sure that she didn’t have to use her witchy powers to fight her way out. Linc’s lips twitched as he carefully wiped his fingers off on a towel – not on the suit, Magnus would skin him for that since it’d come out of his closet in the first place (probably kept there waiting to see if that 30s taste for spats and fedoras came back into fashion). Was Cassie gonna bounce on her toes, her face lighting up at the sight of it? Hopefully.

It'd been too long since he’d seen her. The carnival trip seemed like a year ago now and not just weeks. He’d wanted to when they’d landed from London, staggering off the plane like a bunch of zombie apocalypse survivors – or in Hannya’s case sashayed – but there’d been planning for all of this and then Cassie still had the thing going on at the shop with Nicky’s sister. A couple of days had stretched and now … shit, it was down to minutes, if Cassie was sticking to that window of arrival she’d given him.

The clock wasn’t striking ‘time to purge’ yet, but Cassie would probably notice the people in masks the minute she came in. He wanted time for them to enjoy some of this first, before the doors were sealed and turned into a total nightmare. Not bothering to check if Lawrence was lurking to handle the bartending until Hannya crooked her finger at him, Linc took off up at the stairs. Some of those masks swivelled in his direction, but Linc strode right past. A little of Hannya’s confidence bled into his walk, his fingers popping the button on the jacket, the moustache he’d spent the last two weeks trying to cultivate for tonight twitching as he spotted Cassie and grinned. Yeah, she definitely liked the outfit.

He liked hers, feeling his heart fluttering in his chest as he looked from heart to heart to the bow in her hands. All blushing pinks and reds, like his face was probably gonna get. Linc linked his hands over his heart and pumped them in and out, lips pursed. Did they even have that cartoon over here? Awoooooooga. ”Hey!” Linc called over the music, catching Cassie as she did that bounce he’d anticipated, right towards her. He caught her around the waist, dipping his head as she squeezed him. Not kissing her hello as he wanted to, they’d taken steps, but they weren’t there yet, maybe would never be, but they were still moving. His hands spread carefully, avoiding the wings that sprouted from her back.

As she drew back, he slid away almost reluctantly, spreading the jacket to show off the snazzy lining – probably handstitched by Coco Chanel herself. ”It’s a Magnus special,” he admitted. His grin grew crooked, the jacket fronts fluttering from his fingers as he pretended to hold his hands up, like he was warding off one of the arrows going into a heart that was already spouting little floating hearts for her. ”Love yours too.” Linc felt his throat growing thick as Cassie broke off from the babble of a question and whatever was gonna burst out of her about everything he’d missed to tell him she’d missed him. Something was definitely bubbling up towards his heart like that punch downstairs.

”I missed you too. You would’ve loved half of it … Hector’s … it was nuts.” And the full story would take hours, maybe with the two of them sprawled together in his room after they got out of here, Cassie’s helping him to pack making breaching the barrier of awkwardness between them. ”You wanna find someone quiet and talk or did you wanna …” He gestured out at the dance floor where people were already writhing to the music, most blatantly aware of how things would go later.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 1096

Mrs Graham’s TV had probably been bought some time in the 1970s, but it was far better than the ones his parents had dragged home from time to time. The picture jumped around a little, but you still got to see most of the videos she’d get from the charity shops. Disney had featured heavily, Mrs Graham’s face lighting up as she’d sung along to the songs. Snow White and her dwarves, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan. That had one had come to mind when Magnus had started to really explain what transition was going to mean. No more aging – no middle aged spread, or permanently ingrained wrinkles (that had to be a bitch when you looked in the mirror every morning). It wasn’t like those cheesy teenaged vampire novels where being turned meant you were suddenly beautiful. However you’d been when your heart stopped, that was you forever. Which meant in his case, a permanent baby face, and in Magnus’ … well.

The moustache was meant to give the outfit a little gravitas, but looking in the mirror before he left the house he’d felt a bit like a kid playing dress up in his dad’s wardrobe. It didn’t help that Magnus had at least four inches on him so the suit fit a little too long in the arms and legs. Jo had helped with a judicious application of pins, keeping the tailored look at least. Hopefully Cassie didn’t get jabbed any while they hugged – lingering just a few seconds longer than was strictly friendly – she didn’t mention it when she drew back at least. Her hand found his chin, her thumb brushing along the moustache that probably looked like one a kid would’ve stuck on.

Linc stood there, holding his breath when he wanted to reach up and catch her wrist to pull her into the kiss he’d been hungry for since that first one. It was a hunger he couldn’t shift any more than the other. Especially when Cassie’s thumb trailed along his upper lip. He felt the press of her thumb against his lips as he smiled, that yearning growing. ”Not that much,” he promised. ”It’s still there under the fur.” Ha. He wished. It was more like a barely thickened sheen of bum fluff over his lip, but it was enough to pull off the outfit. The minute it came off – which it would because being a vampire didn’t mean that stuff didn’t itch like a bitch – he’d be back to himself. And Cassie would still be herself. The outfit was just an extension of her, the blush that he thought had risen beneath the pink frosting her cheeks proof of it.

Her eyes came up to meet his as she stopped looking at the moustache. Linc’s crinkled faintly at the corners as he grinned back at her. His hands came up immediately as she pretended to jab an arrow in his direction. Oh, that definitely wasn’t needed, not when the awooooga moment hadn’t been put on one bit. ”Careful,” he teased. His heart was fragile in more ways than one, but he knew that despite their agreement, Cassie had at least one hand wrapped around his heart. Nodding slightly, Linc chuckled. ”The other half was either borin’ or … kinda wild and not in the good way.” Definitely not in the good way when there was literally a snarling wild animal in the next room – and he didn’t mean Kit either. The bits in between Cassie probably would’ve got a kick out of – the plush private plane, Hector’s even plusher pad, those few moments in between the bouts of chaos where some of them had got on. He could’ve shown her London, the bits of it that’d been good for him, the places steeped with memories of Mrs Graham.

The stories would probably have Cassie’s mouth hanging open, or hopefully laughing in that way that lit up the pit of his stomach to hear. He could’ve taken up half the night telling them in some quiet corner of the club, well, at least until the siren ran and then the two of them would be squirrelled away together anyway. Linc made the offer, glancing out at the dance floor – tell her about it all or … dance. Last Halloween they’d danced and he could still remember the way Cassie had grazed up against him while they’d moved, her definitely losing herself in it more than him (he’d been losing himself in her after all).

Shaking his head, Linc offered up his hand. There was going to be plenty of time to talk later, downstairs and maybe back in his room, stretched out on the bed. Heat rose up in his throat again, the last time they’d been there it had gotten awkward, all his fault of course. ”Not mad at all,” he promised, returning that soft squeeze of Cassie’s fingers. ”Right, let’s enjoy it.” He eased close to work their way into the crowd on the dance floor. ”I just wouldn’t touch that blue stuff on the bar. Who knows what Hector’s put in it.” There was a thread of amusement to his throat, although he remembered the way the smoke had risen from it downstairs. Maybe that was what was going to keep the crowd calm when things kicked off later.

Cassie towed him into the centre of it, already wiggling to the music in a way he could only try and emulate. Linc tipped back the hat, leaning his head back with it as he tried to give himself over to the beat as they moved in their little pocket of stagnant air. All those years of doing this at the club and you would’ve thought he’d gotten better at it. The drunk party girls never seemed that bothered about his clumsiness, Cassie didn’t either. She was pressing in closer to him as the crowd swelled, like the mass of people had a life of its own and was drawing in a breath, expanding its lungs and squeezing them all up with it. His hands found Cassie’s hips as she pressed into him, maybe of out self-preservation. It was easier moving with her like this, even if it wasn’t the full on graceful swoop Cassie had been doing minutes ago. Linc felt his throat go thick as Cassie stared at him. Not at his eyes, he could tell her gaze was pinned lower until it jumped up. ”Yeah,” he said hoarsely. ”It’s fine. You alright?” Every breath he drew in smelled of her, even in the sweaty mass of people. Not just the coppery undertone of blood that he was learning to ignore, the sweetness that was Cassie herself. He wanted to lower his head and lose himself in it, although he was sure that was too close to that dangerous line that crossing would shatter all of this.

Easy. The warning rolled through Linc’s head, weirdly in Magnus’ thought. His eyes stayed on hers, his heart – dead as it was – stuttered in his chest, his breath coming short as Cassie started to lean in further. Friendship had been their deal, but he wasn’t crazy, they both wanted more, right? Dipping his head, Linc let his lips part slightly, anticipating … shit. He let out a groaning laugh as Cassie flipped and started to dance again. The heat didn’t vanish with a snap, it stayed there, a super nova in the pit of his stomach, an ache that thankfully wasn’t confined in jeans that would’ve been too tight. She straightened up, Cassie’s hand reaching over her shoulder to grab his. Linc let out a breathless laugh and grinned at her. His hands found her hips and as the beat kicked in hard again, he started to move with her.

Maybe he had managed to lose himself in it in the end. The speakers pounded the room with the sort of music you could feel in your bones – the sort it had taken him time to get used to again when each heavy thud had sent panic lancing through him – and the two of them had stayed in the centre of it all. He’d fetched one round of drinks, leaving Cassie right there for the two minutes it had taken him to muscle his way to the front of the crowd at the bar with the holler of ”staff coming through! and then back out. Linc could still taste it on his lips sticky sweet as he drew Cassie in again, lifting her hands to drape his shoulders. His hands skimmed down her arms, stopping dead just above her elbows.

The music was loud, but the siren cut through it. The crowd seemed to freeze, and so did his gut. By now the masked partiers who’d worked their way through the crowd would be coming to life with the dinner bell suddenly run. ”Hold on, Cassie. Don’t let go alright? I don’t want to lose you in the crowd. We need to get downstairs.” He should’ve kept a better eye on the time, worked them closer to the door down to Emerald City while they’d been dancing. Now, as a shriek went up from near the bar, Linc was wriggling through the crowd, not caring that he was shouldering people aside. The door loomed up, some tall, gaunt figure in a mask looming in front of it. ”Excuse me, mate, staff comin’ through,” Linc started. He wasn’t moving though. With a snarl he flashed fangs and wormy black veins at the guy, shoulder charging him to get the door open and Cassie squeezed through it.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 1602

Knowing the alarm was coming and hearing it shriek through the air were two different things. They’d ended up in a little bubble on the dance floor, like the sweating, wild people around them had melted away and it was just Cassie and the music he could sense. It had left what was coming as some distant possibility that should’ve come rumbling back in like thunder, giving the two of them to scatter to safety. Cassie had been right there, and he was smiling at her, his forehead pressed to hers, his fingertips gentle on the backs of her biceps. Caught in the spell of her – although the witch comparison was cringey and he never would’ve said it aloud – forgetting all about the siren until he practically had to clamp his hands over his ears to get away from it.

Drawing back, Linc grabbed for one of Cassie’s hands as hers went up to try and cover her ears to cut it out. That might have stopped the sound for the time being, but it wasn’t going to save her life when the masked things in here descended on the crowd and enjoyed their free reign for the night. There was a chance nobody but them was going to be walking out of here at the end of the night. ”The alarm,” Linc called out to her. ”We’ve gotta go, alright.” Thanks Hector. He obviously hadn’t told Cassie what was coming. Had he known she was going to be safe with him or was all that shit about a deal with Cassie only convenient for as long as she was alive?

They weren’t gonna stand around and question it now, not with those screams already cutting through the club. The masked arseholes were already moving, closing in on the targets they’d marked out through the early part of the night – like they were picking which lobster they wanted out of the tank. Neither one of them was gonna be dinner, thanks.

This time saying staff wasn’t enough to clear the path. The thing – was it any of the ones he’d spent a year serving downstairs? – wasn’t moving, looming there, not even twitching as he flashed fangs and tried to puff himself up (that was how you were meant to deal with predators, wasn’t it?). ”Find your fun elsewhere!” Linc growled the threat out, but it wasn’t working, they hadn’t moved. Shitshitshitshit. Letting that part of him come rushing up hadn’t been easy in the first place, did he have to let all that he was holding back with it free? Panic started to bite, but Cassie was there, throwing something out silently that had him cringing aside finally.

Linc tore the door open, dragging Cassie through it after him. He was gonna slam it, throw the locks that probably wouldn’t keep something out if it really wanted it, but Cassie was there first, casting a spell over it. It’d be the first line of defence for the two of them, the stairs, the bar, the dressing room that he normally wouldn’t put a toe in while Hannya was around, further defences. The last one was gonna be him in front of Cassie if it was necessary though. She could knock him on his arse too, but if anything happened, he was still stepping in front of her, not letting her get hurt because she’d come to spend the night with him.

He kept his hand in Cassie’s, fingers squeezing as he led her through the darkened bar without flipping on the lights – as though it was going to somehow lure something down here. The lights around the dressing room mirrors were still on, giving off enough illumination that they could slip between the dressing tables and racks without falling over. The rack against the back wall slid aside, revealing the door to the small closet space. Usually it would’ve been filled with junk, but Magnus had taken care of that too, clearing it out, leaving what was meant to get him through until dawn if it had to. Shuffling in behind her, Linc finally let go and turned, pulling the rack close across the gap as he shut the door again. He stood there for a second, straining his ears to make sure that thing wasn’t following them.

As Cassie let out her sigh, Linc pressed his forehead to the door and let out a low, relieved laugh. Safe was probably pushing it a bit, but they were for now. ”The dinner bell,” Linc admitted with a wince, catching her look as he turned around. ”Someone had the idea to turn tonight into The Purge – like things don’t get messy enough in here. I should’ve told you before, sorry. I kinda assumed Hector already had.” But Hector had probably been too busy rubbing his hands together at the idea of getting to pillage again to do it. Taking a slow step towards her, Linc pressed his lips together and shook his head at the idea that it was just a show. ”It’s all real. It’s gonna be a horror show up there by the time they’re done.” And come morning the girl Cassie had seen bitten probably wouldn’t be the only body they were carrying out of here in the morning.

Magnus had made sure that neither one of them were gonna be among them. Linc stepped over Cassie’s legs, turning in the space between her and the wall on the other side. She was already dragging the Styrofoam box into her lap, opening it before he could think what Magnus had loaded it up with. ”Sorry,” Linc said awkwardly. He slid down, stretching out his legs as far as he could with her sitting next to him. ”It kinda is. You didn’t need to see it.” Cassie before Cassie had though, poking into it and then considering what it meant after.

Linc smiled crookedly at her, settling the box down at the side of his legs, with the lid slotted back on. ”I’m alright for now … I made sure before … I didn’t want anythin’ to happen tonight.” He held out his hand to her, palm up, fingers extended for her to slip hers into, inching a little closer so that his shoulder was brushing hers – carefully, her wings were still back there after all and probably crushed up a bit. ”Did you want somethin’ … I could go out to the bar if Magnus didn’t ….” He looked around the two of them like it would turn up another box. He should’ve asked about it before, made sure that neither one of them was gonna end up hungry and desperate in here, well, not in that way at least, because they were about to spend the night closer than they had been since … that day.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 1138

Even with Cassie’s reassurance, Linc wasn’t sure he’d be able to just pull one of those blood bags out of the box to feed. He wouldn’t lose control if he did – not like hearing Cassie’s pulse at the same time the blood ran down his throat would have him throwing it aside to launch himself at her. It just felt … awkward, like he was stripping away something that held the monster out of sight. The more he did that with Cassie the better, she swore she was okay with what he was, but that was without her really witnessing all the rest of it. A few hours without it, he’d be fine. Especially with the distraction of her.

Sitting close to her had him aware of every movement she made – the faint flutter of the wings with every breath she took, the minute shift of her expression, the way the blush rose in her cheeks. He could’ve excused it, said it was just what he was, but it wasn’t that way when he was jostling for space behind the bar down here, hadn’t been that way when he’d been trapped up in the London Eye with Remzi, Lawrence and Kit, hovering on that tightrope of panic. It was different with Cassie, had been from the start.

That probably should’ve meant that holding his hand out for hers meant more than just reassurance, but that was another admission he wasn’t about to make. He was comforting her, distracting her too, smiling back almost shyly as Cassie reassured him she didn’t need anything. Linc lifted his chin a fraction before he settled his head back against the wall. ”If you do later, I can go. I don’t think anythin’s gonna spill over down here.” But he couldn’t guarantee it. That’s why they weren’t just sitting out at the bar, chilling somewhere with a little more space. Once the night rolled on there was a chance people would wanna take a breather, the ones that were normally allowed to be down here anyway.

Linc lifted his brows, looking down at Cassie as she settled her head against his shoulder. He swept his thumb over the back of her hand, looking further down, focusing on the way her hand was smaller than his, her fingers delicate looking, disguising all that they could do with her power waving invisibly from them. ”Hector?” he asked quietly, like somehow he’d summon him down here with just the sound of his name. ”Me neither, really. I can’t imagine he really ran this past Magnus before he decided to do it. Just seems like it’d draw way too much attention here.” Especially since they’d likely be dozens of bodies to clean up at the end of the night. One missing person here and there probably wouldn’t be missed in a town where dozens vanished every day, but that many who’d been heading here to party suddenly gone? That wouldn’t be written off as a coincidence. That might mean he was gonna be looking for another job soon.

Maybe he’d just bum around for a while – if Magnus would let it happen. It wasn’t like his dad needed him to pay his way, although he tried to do it anyway. Spending time with Cassie, trying to patch up the remaining wounds that had been carved into them the night she’d made the ring that gleamed on his finger now. They could hang out, even if it was just at Nicky’s shop when she was meant to be working.

He ran his thumb over his ring as Cassie gradually shifted away to peel off her wings. Pressing himself into the wall on his other side, twisting out of range, Linc avoided getting tangled up in them. They were pretty and he wasn’t about to be to blame for ruining them. Cassie tucked them out of reach before she twisted up in the small space – he was definitely watching her rather than awkwardly staring at his hands then, not ashamed of it either. Unsure where to settle his hand now, Linc laced his at his stomach, close enough to where Cassie had settled her head on his thigh to feel her hair brushing against his fingers. It set that heat rolling through his stomach, left that little voice in his head warning him about where he should let his thoughts wander.

For a moment he stayed there, head resting back against the wall, just watching Cassie. They could talk and he’d gone mute, just sort of basking in this until she mentioned Mandy. ”Really? That’s brilliant,” he said honestly, his grin bright for a minute. ”So they’ve got you to thank for it.” Klaus. One of the Original family, the sort of vampire he’d been warned not to go looking for, especially after what had happened to Cassie. As she said Darcey hadn’t exactly been pleasant about the revelation, Linc unlaced his fingers and settled his hand on her shoulder. ”It wasn’t like you were keeping it quiet on purpose.” But in a way, for him, she had done. It had him swallowing hard, his fingers squeezing her shoulder lightly before he settled back. Cassie keeping quiet about that was probably one of the reasons nobody had come looking to punish him for that.

She’d pulled off like a miracle for the Reids, if Darcey could see that now, then he was an idiot – although he wasn’t about to call the guy that to his face. Linc huffed out a breath through his nose, a smile rolling back in. ”I didn’t save any lives while we were there, not like Wonder Woman here.” He flipped up one of her wavy blonde locks as he teased. ”It was kinda crazy. You ever seen pictures of the British castles on TV? Like Buckingham Palace? Magnus and Hector took us right into them, like just walked past the guards. Turns out that Magnus lived in one, they’ve still got up his coat of arms or whatever on the wall.” His stall plate, although that description probably wouldn’t have meant anything to Cassie.

”That was like the real touristy stuff. The rest was … wild. Hector flew us in on a private jet, he owns some flash flat there. It was huge. Oh, and I missed the bit about the Thames…” Grimacing faintly in embarrassment, he reached up to scratch at the bridge of his nose. ”There’s this giant ferris wheel right on the Thames, a few of us went up in it, left Magnus and Hector to drive. They broke it, with us right up at the top. Couldn’t get us down so we…” He held his hand up in the air, flat, fingers pointing up, with a whistle he bounced it up and then swooped it down into a dive, adding a plooosssssh at the end to imitate slamming into the Thames. Water spraying everywhere, the world disappearing in a cloud of murky water and bubbles, it had scared the shit out of him until he’d found the surface.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 1176

Cassie was downplaying it – with her ‘all I did’ and the sheepish smile that still had his own growing again like it was one of those dimmer bulbs, controlled by the moods that shimmered out of her – while he’d been clinging to the hand rail on a buggered London Eye and tracking Hector and Magnus’ drunk arses across London she’d been saving Mandy’s life. Without her telling them where to look, he doubted Mandy would’ve been found half as fast as she had been (not that it had been counted in minutes instead of weeks). Darcey could huff and puff and deny how pivotal that one bit of information was, but he’d have been wrong. Pride in Cassie lit up bright in his chest at the same time as his temper sizzled with the desire to go and tell the guy to watch his mouth (a move he likely wouldn’t make, not when it could screw things up for her).

They’d almost gotten back to the point they’d been at before and Linc had no plans of falling off the fence the wrong way with it. Kids had done it on the estate in the literal way, little toerags scrambling over the metal fences into places they weren’t meant to go, some had tried it at the club too, caught up on the barbed wire by their clothes, dangling there like shark bait for Wesley’s people to find. All that embarrassment and pain for what? Nah. He had no intention of doing that with Cassie by storming into Nicky’s shop, trying to go nose to nose with Darcey. He wanted this, any way he could get it.

She’d been on his mind in London, a constant companion that he wished he could’ve reached out to, shared it all with. Cassie would’ve gone up on the London Eye with him – during the day when someone competent was in charge of the controls. Magnus might’ve been one hell of a historian – the sort who would’ve been wandering the dusty halls of some ancient house on BBC2, fingers steepled, stories about seven hundred year old family feuds and political intrigue spilling out.

Linc’s grin brightened, his gaze skimming Cassie’s face – pausing at her lips before she beamed up at him and it was skittering up to meet her eyes. ”Really,” he swore. He bobbed his head, squinting faintly at the memory of that plaque thing on the wall at Windsor. ”Sir Dayne. The King gave it to him. He’s not a blue blood or anythin’, but he’s the next best thing. Practically raised the next King, said he was like a son.” What a high bar that was gonna be to try and live up to. Your first ‘son’ was a King, your second was off a council estate in the armpit of London.

He puffed his cheeks out, his gaze and mind drifting for a moment before he drew himself back. Magnus had sworn he wasn’t a disappointment, he loved him like he was his actual kid and not some Oliver Twist like stray he’d picked up. That meant something. He drew himself back to tell Cassie about the rest of the trip – the amazing and the screwed up – although he left out Remzi’s glory moments, like having to be told not to be snorting shit in Buckingham Palace. ”Yeah, that’s the one,” Linc confirmed, dropping his hand back down lightly, settling it close enough to Cassie that a twitch of his fingers would’ve had them brushing against her. Shaking his head vehemently, Linc chuckled. ”The others jumped, I couldn’t do it. They ended up kicking me out. The river was freezing.” But he’d been able to swim at least (god bless his primary school and Mrs Graham for that). ”We didn’t exactly pay for the tickets. We went on it at like midnight, without permission.” At his suggestion.

Kit had been the sensible one most of the trip, but unlike Hannya (thank fuck), he’d been up there in the pod with them. He’d probably been trained how to get himself out of those situations a thousand ways. ”He went. Me, Remzi, Lawrence and Kit. Hannya stayed with Magnus and Hector…” Linc frowned faintly before he shook it off – maybe Hannya being down there had something to do with it all breaking and all the blame had been shovelled onto Magnus instead.

Humming, Linc bobbed his head. That stuff had been among the highlights of the trip, although he’d thought about Cassie enjoying every one of them if she’d been there too – surely ‘does magic for me whenever I need her to’ should’ve been enough of a reason for Hector to add her to the group. After a moment, Linc pressed his lips together and gave one final nod. She knew he’d been anxious about it, although not all the details of why. ”Other than the unexpected swim, yeah. Maybe next time you can come with us. You’d love it all.” And then he wouldn’t have missed her with that bubble like hollow in the pit of his stomach. It had vanished the minute he’d seen her upstairs, filling in with warmth like the sun had taken up residence in his gut again.

One crazy story at a time, one question at a time from Cassie, he talked her through the rest of the trip. Linc was pretty sure that slowly growing sun lent colour to his cheeks as she told him she was glad he was back. After a while conversation slipped away, but they stayed where they were – Cassie’s head on his lap, his gaze lingering on her face more than was strictly friendly, his fingers twitching minutely that hair’s breadth from her, wanting to touch but not to spoil this. He could’ve curled them around her arm, used that touch to draw her up so he could kiss her again, the way he’d wanted to even at his lowest point, the phantom press of Cassie’s lips against his a torturous reminder of what he’d screwed up.

By the time she stretched, he was sure he was permanently anchored there. The party had to be in full swing up there now, bodies stacked up in the corners like they had done during Wesley’s parties, just waiting for him to clean up later. His throat went tight at that, squeezed shut hard enough to almost choke him as Cassie stretched out and something inside of him went bow string tight. He shuffled back half an inch as she moved, like he was trying to give her space, but then she was looking at the box of blood and he wondered if it was bothering her.

Clearing his throat, he planted his hands flat on the floor, then drew them back onto his thighs as Cassie looked up at him. His teeth raked over his lower lip until she spoke. Shyness bit deep then, the hunger heating the back of his throat. He could’ve gone the night without doing it, maybe. Magnus hadn’t thought so though, and maybe both him and Cassie were right. Linc looked back and forth between her smile and the box. ”You sure?” he asked, a rasping edge to his voice. ”I’ll be alright if you’re not. I won’t …” He puffed out a breath, stopping himself from saying that he wouldn’t lose control. Cassie was already starting to sit up though, trying to give him room and that he didn’t want. Settling a hand on her shoulder finally, he eased her down. ”You don’t have to. I want you to stay. It’s not always like it is when we …” He gestured to his mouth with his other hand, like his fangs were dropping into place.

Slipping the hand that had been on her shoulder down to the bottom of her ribs to keep her in place, Linc eased forward to flip the lid off of the Styrofoam box. He took one of the bags out, holding it awkwardly as he settled back in. His arm slid around Cassie’s waist, making sure she was comfortable. ”You want me to stop … you start feelin’ uncomfortable, let me know and I’ll stop immediately.” A promise that he could keep, his control strong enough now thanks to Magnus. Linc’s eyes dropped to the bag as he bit down on the top of it, not wanting to see if the look on Cassie’s face changed, disgust filling her eyes again. Maybe not having his fangs pop or the veins start crawling under his eyes would help take the ick factor out of the blood filling his mouth, his throat working as he started to swallow it down.

Tagged: CASSIE LUANNA * Word Count: 1447