Kane shook his head. “Before, when I felt like this, a doctor gave me an injection. It helped a lot.”
“Let me guess. An injection of a sparkly, silver substance, right?” the doctor asked.
“Yes!”
“No.” That was Everet.
Pointedly ignoring him, Kane kept his eyes on the doctor.
“It would hurt you more in the long run,” he repeated.
“No, it wouldn’t. It helps,” Kane snapped, anger bubbling up inside him, demanding to be released, even when he felt as if he could barely lift his head from his pillow.
“It’s not going to happen, Kane.” Everet sounded so bloody certain about that.
Kane dragged himself up into a sitting position through sheer force of will. Everet’s hand came to rest on his shoulder, but pure fury and desperation fueled Kane now. “If you won’t help me, I’ll find someone who will!”
Catching Everet off guard, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and lurched to his feet. Pushing past the doctor, Kane staggered toward the door, his blankets trailing behind him.
He managed to get halfway across the room before Everet caught hold of both his arms, pulling him back toward the bed.
“No!”
The next moment, Everet’s arms encircled Kane, trapping his arms against his body.
Kane screamed. He had no idea what he yelled out. Words were complicated things. There was no room for them in his head. There was just need. He needed his fix. The sound he made was wild, feral, unlike anything Kane ever remembered hearing, let alone making himself.
Kicking out at Everet’s legs, Kane felt himself deliver several good blows to the other man’s knees and shins. His arms were trapped and useless, but that didn’t stop him. He flung back his head, aiming for Everet’s nose.
No curses filled the air. Everet didn’t let go. His arms remained around Kane as if he intended to keep hold of him no matter what he did.
Kane struggled on, now completely demented with need. Thoughts, even those that were all about getting free, or why he needed to do that, began to fade away, lost in the confusion. No other thoughts arose to take their place. Kane couldn’t think about anything anymore, all he could do was panic.
Everet twisted and stretched his neck as Kane jerked his head again and, unless Everet was very much mistaken, tried to break his nose for at least the third time. Pain shot through his knee as Kane kicked him.
Just a moment later, the magpie’s elbow jerked back, catching Everet just below his ribs. Everet grunted, but he didn’t let go. The boy’s frantic movements were impossible for anyone to control. Despite Everet’s best efforts, they swayed too close to the bedroom wall.
Kane’s legs went up. Planting his feet on the paintwork, he kicked out, pushing them both backward. Everet stumbled toward the other side of the room, toppling as his balance suddenly deserted him. All the air rushed out of his lungs as they landed heavily on the bed, his arms still encircling Kane.
Whatever powered Kane gave him more strength than any man his size should have possessed. There was no weight to him, and little enough muscle. Hell, he hadn’t even managed to eat anything for over three days, but he had the strength of a damn albatross.
Using his extra weight to his advantage now, Everet pinned Kane down on the bed. The doctor couldn’t have done anything, and he’d already left at Everet’s command, closing the door behind him.
No doubt Ambrose had left Everet’s rooms too, trailing after the doctor like a duckling trailed after its mother.
There was no one except Everet there to help Kane.
The responsibility fell to him. Kane was his.
Time passed by. There seemed to be no end to the other man’s struggles, no limit to his energy.
“Bastard! Let me go!” Kane’s speech was muffled against the bedsheets, but that didn’t take any of the venom out of it. Still, at least they were words. He was capable of forming syllables. Perhaps the worst of it had passed.
“I hate you. Let me go.” Kane squirmed and bucked. Lifting his head, he yelled at the top of his voice. “Help!”
Everet used every part of his body to hold the other man down, but Kane seemed to have more limbs than any avian in the history of their kind, and he wasn’t above fighting dirty. Everet only just pulled his hand away from Kane’s mouth in time to avoid a bite.
“Calm down!”
Kane didn’t seem to hear him.
Everet’s heart raced even faster as Kane kicked and writhed beneath him. His brain understood that the way he and Kane rolled around on the bed had nothing to do with sex. His body didn’t give a damn what his brain thought about the situation.
Every time Kane struggled to get free, he pressed his arse back against Everet’s crotch. Friction was still friction no matter how it was obtained. When it was produced by a naked man who Everet’s body had longed to get better acquainted with ever since it spotted him, thinking of it as asexual was impossible.
Suddenly, Kane stilled.
For several minutes neither of them moved except to gasped for breath.
“I’ll let you screw me,” Kane finally whispered. “I’ll do whatever you want.”
Everet closed his eyes.
Kane arched his back, this time there was nothing accidental about the way he pressed his buttocks against Everet’s erection.
“You can whip me. Or you can do me in front of your friends. They can watch while I beg you to screw me. I’ll let them take turns with me afterward if you want.”
“Kane,” Everet whispered, shaking his head.
“And you have no idea what a magpie can earn in one hour with another man,” Kane rushed out. “I can bring in far more in a day than you’d have to spend on quicksilver for me in a week, and—”
“No.”
Kane whimpered, squirming underneath Everet like a man in more pain than he could physically contain. “Please? Begging! Is that what does it for you. You want me to get on my knees and plead. I will. I’ll—”
“No!” It was all Everet could do to keep the word anything less than a yell. “There is nothing you can do, or say, that will convince me to put you back on that stuff.”
From their respective positions, it was just possible for Everet to see Kane’s profile. He watched as Kane closed his eyes.
A tear beaded in the corner of his left eye and ran across the bridge of his nose.
“Kane?”
Half of Everet was furious at yet another possible attempt at manipulation. The other half of him tensed at the sight of Kane’s tears, simply wanting to do whatever it took to make him feel better.
Kane turned his face into the blankets as if trying to hide the moisture gathering on his lashes. A really good attempt at manipulation, or was he ashamed at genuine tears?
Everet couldn’t tell. It didn’t matter. Either way, he couldn’t give in. He closed his eyes too, but permitted no frustrated tears to gather on his lashes, not even when he felt Kane finally fall into an exhausted sleep beneath him.
Wincing each time he put too much weight on his sore knee, Everet slowly rearranged Kane in his bed, tucking him in beneath his blankets. There was no telling how long he’d remain asleep this time.
Everet slumped back into the chair by the side of the bed. He felt like he hadn’t slept in years. In truth, it hadn’t been more than a few days. That didn’t make his eyeballs itch any less.
He closed his eyes for a moment. The moment stretched out into a minute, then an hour, Everet’s eyes remained closed.
* * * *
A sudden bang jerked Everet out of his slumber. He got up so quickly, he almost threw himself out of his chair. He looked around, frantically trying to get his bearings. The chair. Yes, he was well acquainted with that chair. It wasn’t the first time he’d dozed in it since he’d met Kane.
Everet rubbed at his eyes and blinked toward the bed. Kane was…not there.
Kane wasn’t there!
Everet stepped forward as he came fully awake and quickly took in several details about the room. The most important one was that Kane wasn’t in it; all the others could wait.
Everet rushed out of the bedroom. One of those less important details from the bedroom repeated itself in his living room. Every item Everet owned had been emptied out of the drawers and cupboards. They littered every inch of the floor.
Carelessly trampling his possessions, Everet headed for the door leading into the bathroom, just in case Kane might be there.
He was almost to the other side of the room when he spotted Kane. The magpie hunched down, hidden from view behind a chair, as he rooted through the back of a low cabinet. Several items cracked beneath Everet’s feet as he rushed toward him.
Kane already had Everet’s wallet in his hand. He seemed so absorbed in hunting for more money, he didn’t hear Everet noisy approach.
He spun away as Everet put a hand on his shoulder. His eyes opened very wide. He stared up at Everet as if he had never seen him before. Shuffling back on his heels and palms, he only stopped when his elbow hit the cabinet. Money tumbled from his fingers and scattered across on the floor.
Everet held his hands up. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Kane scrabbled at the fallen money, paying no attention to anything else.
Everet tried to put a hand on his shoulder again. “Kane. Kane, look at me.”
The magpie had already gathered up most of what amounted to Everet’s life savings. He still didn’t seem to have heard a damn word.
Everet reached out to capture the other man’s hands.
“No! Mine! It’s mine, you can’t have it.” Kane scrabbled at the remaining notes, keeping a fearful eye on Everet over his shoulder as he hunched over the money, but never once looking him in the face.
“Kane,” Everet said again, as calmly and patiently as he knew how. “You need to look at me.”
Kane shook his head, pressing himself against the cabinet in an attempt to get away now he’d collected all the money. His hair fell over his eyes, hiding his expression, making it harder than ever for Everet to read the situation.
Everet’s heart raced faster and faster, but somehow he kept his voice level. “It’s going to be okay, Kane, but it’s important that you look at me.”
Finally, he obeyed. Their eyes met. Kane’s gaze was completely unfocused. It quickly darted quickly away.
“Hurts.”
“Yes, sweetheart. I know it hurts.”
Kane hesitated before slowly shuffling away from the cabinet.
Everet held his breath and remained perfectly still, simply letting Kane come to him. His movements were jerky and damn near the least graceful thing Everet had ever seen, but he’d also never witnessed anything more beautiful.
Kane put his hand on the back of Everet’s hand and stroked slowly up his arm. “Anything you want?” he whispered, repeating the offering he’d made hundreds of times now.
Everet turned his hand over and offered it to Kane. Empires rose and fell in the time it took Kane to put his hand in Everet’s grasp, but eventually he was able to stand up and help Kane to his feet.
He led the other man back into the bedroom, ignoring the fact that Kane still held a handful of his money in his fist.
“Anything you want,” Kane repeated again. He paused by the side of the bed. “What—what do you want me to do?”