Fraudulent Death, Draft 01, CH 05 (Patreon)

Going to be late, Marlot sent, the traffic is horrible. He put the pad back on the dash and looked at the stopped car ahead of him. The snow had stopped, but it hadn’t helped the traffic. The accidents had already happened. The roads were already jammed. He took the pad and looked for an alternate route. The entire city was gridlocked.

He looked at the pedestrians. They’d probably get where they were going before he did.

Twenty minutes later, he finally drove by the accident. Fender bender, no serious injuries, just blocking the only lane so they had to drive into oncoming traffic when there was space. Half an hour later, he parked in front of Trembor’s house. The path to the porch was cleared. Across the road cubs were throwing snowballs at each other. Parents were clearing their driveway.

Trembor hadn’t done that yet. He hadn’t had to. His car was still in the garage, the enforcers had taken him away. Them, or more probably, Trembor’s family had driven him back. Marlot shuddered at the memory of calling Ufen to have them send someone to look after Bo’s cubs so Marlot could follow the enforcers. He and the lion had gotten along as they were both outsiders to the family. He was mated to one of Trembor’s sister, but he’d still been curt to the point of almost hanging up when Marlot identified himself. No one in Trembor’s family liked him right now for what he’d put him through.

He stepped up to the door and knocked, tightening his jacket. The end of the snow hadn’t brought warming temperatures. The door opened and heat blew around him, carrying the scent of his lion.

“Hi,” Trembor said.

Marlot smiled. How long had it been since he’d seen his lion? “Hi.” Far too long. “How have you been?” Trembor tilted an ear and Marlot’s own burned. “Stupid question. Sorry. I missed you so much. I wanted to be here sooner, but there’s a bunch of accidents due to the snow.”

“I might have noticed the snow,” Trembor said, chuckling.

“I’m being an idiot, aren’t I?”

“It’s endearing.” The lion pulled Marlot in his arms and inside the house. “I missed you too.”

Marlot buried his muzzle in the lion’s mane and breathed in. The fur soap had washed away most of Trembor’s scent, but he was still there, under the chemical ones. His lion. His mate. He tightened his hold on him. He’d chased him away, almost lost him completely. He wasn’t going to do anything like that again. Whatever it took, he was going to keep his lion, make him happy. Never lose him again.

“Are you hungry?” Trembor whispered, mouth to his ear.

“Are you on the menu?” Marlot whispered back.

Trembor chuckled. “How about we see how the evening goes first?” He looked him in the eyes and smiled. Before Marlot could react, the lion had his mouth on his.

Marlot melted into him. Parting his muzzle at the first pressure of the tongue, letting the lion in, tightening his grip on him. Too quickly it was gone, and Marlot was panting, opening his eyes to look at his lion’s smile.

“I’ll warm us some meat,” Trembor said, stepping deeper into the house without letting go of Marlot. “I can even manage not to add anything to it, if you prefer.”

Marlot chuckled. “I’ll eat anything you prepare, even if it’s just a body you drop on a tarp on the floor.”

“It’s definitely too early for that one. Or rather, what tends to happen afterward.”

Marlot’s ears warmed at the memories of their showers, where they did much more than clean the blood off each other. Trembor sat Marlot at the table and (need to check if Trembor has a prep table) took meat from the cooler.

“How did the interview go?” Marlot asked. “I saw the city prosecutor was there.”

Trembor shook his head as he placed the meat in the warmer. “Let’s not talk about that. I just want this evening to be about us, not my legal problems.”

“It is about—” Marlot closed his muzzle and took a breath. Even with having gone to his counselor yet, he knew he had to stop wanting to know everything about what Trembor was up to. They’d get back to that point in their relationship, but it had to happen organically. “How’s Herelex?”

“Glad to have his father back home. You mentioned something about seeing a counselor, yesterday, before…” Trembor trailed off.

Before the enforcers dragged you away from me, Marlot thought. How are we supposed to talk about us and not address what’s going on right now?

“I haven’t seen her yet. My first appointment is in a few days. Should be fun.” He didn’t look forward to it, but anything to keep his lion. “Who drove you home? The enforcers?”

“Cerek. Mom and dad were there, as was Bay and Dayra, and well as Vex.”

“Which one is Vex?”

Trembor chuckled. “Vexori, one of my brothers by Lyria.”

“Right.” He had no idea which of the brothers that one was, although he remembered Lyria. Nice female, quiet strength. Marlot had felt she was the more understanding of Trembor’s mothers, but then, Arima was protective as he was her biological son, and Serene was just plain scary.

“Don’t worry, I reintroduce you to him at the next dinner.”

“If I’m not the one cut up in pieces on the table.”

“They won’t do that.” Trembor took the meat from the warmer and placed them on the table. He took a bottle of blood from the fridge. “You want yours cut?”

“No, thanks.”

The lion filled one, then added alcohol to the other.

“When did you start cutting yours?”

Trembor shrugged, placing the glasses on the table. “It’s been a stressful few months.”

Marlot bit his lips to keep from replying. He’d been the trigger for most of it, after all. He’d keep an eye on it, make sure his lion didn’t overdo it. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to drive you. Had a body.”

“How did that go?”

“Looks like a robbery gone wrong. A vagrant found it, reported it instead of making off with it. Jaxca has it. He should have the preliminary tomorrow. The cold did help. The top ground layer hardened enough I was able to get the snow blown off, so I have some tracks, it’s a construction zone, so how useful they are, is questionable. We can go question the site workers tomorrow.”

“I can’t,” Trembor replied. “My license is suspended.”

“That’s bullshit,” Marlot grumbled. “Your brother didn’t do anything, so what you did doesn’t matter.”

“I broke the—” Trembor closed his mouth, forced a smile. “How’s Hela’han? Is the ‘friend’ still coming over, or do you scare him too much?”

“He comes when I’m not there, but I smell him.” Marlot let Trembor change the subject. “His intentions toward her haven’t changed, but she smells like she wants the same thing, so I’m not going to get in the way.” He realized he’d eaten half his plate. “This is good. What is it, elk?”

“Warthog.”

Marlot tilted an ear. “That’s not what you usually hunt.”

“Kill of opportunity. He got in the way of my planned kill.”

Marlot was surprised. Prey tended to protect who they knew— were close to— and Trembor didn’t normally hunt prey as aggressive as warthogs. He wondered who he’d planned on killing that had a warthog as a friend willing to risk their lived to save them.

“How’s the office? Did you downsize?”

“No, things were getting tight, but with capturing Nikal, the city gave me a bonus. It’s going to tide me over until you come back.”

The lion didn’t say anything.

Marlot wanted to demand why Trembor took this lawsuit so seriously. In a few days it would blow over, they’d slap a fine on him and that’d be it. He didn’t care what Bahamel said, Trembor hadn’t done anything bad. It wasn’t like he’d let a hunter run around the city free to kill for weeks after realizing he was there. Between the two of them, Marlot was the one who deserved to have his license taken away.

He almost told the lion he’d take the blame. With his computer skills, he could transition to another field. Go into security like Afirna, although he probably wouldn’t to deal with her restriction since he’d never been caught hacking government databases. He could continue working on his tracking program.

He could smell the worry wafting off Trembor.

He could make all his problems go away, but that would be him dictating what happened. He’d be doing what Gorrek had done.

“Is Gorrek too sensitive of a subject?”

Trembor chuckled. “It’s not like he can show up out of nowhere anymore. That was always my biggest fear.”

“I didn’t think you went for the aggressive type.”

“I was young, at that age it’s flattering to have someone come after you that hard. By the time he had me, that I realized what I’d gotten myself into, I didn’t know how to get out. Half the time I didn’t think I wanted to get out. I’d agreed to be his. So obviously I had to want to be treated that way. He was always very good at making me think the whole situation was my idea.”

“And I blamed you for making me hack your pad.”

“It’s okay, Marl, I understand where you were. Why you lost it.”

“It doesn’t make it right.”

“Are you going to do it again?”

“Absolutely not.”

Trembor smiled. “Then we’re good.”

Only Marlot didn’t think they were. Where had Trembor been mentally that he’d been willing to break the law? Had Nikal engineered the situation to force Trembor there? He suspected the hare would tell him, if he could only ask him.

“Trem, this lawsuit, why is it worrying you?”

“Because I broke the law.”

“But it was nothing, they’re going to see it and toss it out.”

“That isn’t the point Marl, you know it. It always starts that way, one little thing, you excuse it and then another opportunity occurs and why not? You got away with it last time. Only this time it’s a little bigger. Then there’s a third and before you know you’re just like—” Trembor snapped his mouth close as he looked at Marlot, his ears turning red before folding back.

“Me,” Marlot said coolly. He shouldn’t hurt. Trembor had discussed Marlot’s flexible morals often enough when they worked. How easily he could work with criminals, pay them, to get information. A lot of enforcers did the same, but not Trembor. He’d considered that a line a law-abiding citizen shouldn’t cross. He’d never said he saw Marlot as a criminal himself, until now.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” The lion whispered.

“Then tell me how else you meant it.”

Trembor attempted, but failed, to say anything, and it was answer enough for Marlot.

He stood. “I need to go.”

“Marl, don’t—”

“You just—” He closed his muzzle on the shout, tried to get his emotions under control. Telling himself his lion hadn’t meant it didn’t help. He was afraid he’d something Gorrek would if he stayed, and that was one person he didn’t want to be compared to anymore. “I have to go.” He stated as calmly as he could and left before Trembor could voice another protest.