Part Thirty-Nine
**One Week Later**
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” said Whitney in exasperation, “that Lindsey is selling his body for someone else’s safety. It’s just not right.”
“Well, what do you want me to do about it?”
“I want you to get Eoin, Aiden, Daithi, and Morgan to LA as soon as possible. We’ve got to find out what’s going on!”
“Well…”
“Please, Feich, we’ve got to help Lindsey!”
“Oh, fine. But I hope you know Aiden will probably drag that little singer of his along, too. What’s his name again? Devon? Anyway, I’ll call and let you know when we’ll get on the road.”
“Thanks, Feich, you’re a lifesaver.”
“I know, Whit, I know.”
Corey watched Xander dancing, a small smile on his face.
“What are you smiling at?” asked a girl, sitting at his table. She smiled coyly. “I’m Veronica.”
Corey glanced at her briefly, then went back to watching Xander. “Watching my boyfriend. And you’re in his chair.”
Veronica pouted. “Your boyfriend?” She glanced over to where he was looking. “That goofball? Wouldn’t you rather watch me dance? Or dance with me?”
“No, I’d rather not.”
She got up huffily. “Fine, be that way.”
“I already am. Nothing’s going to change that.” He snickered when she got a disgusted look on her face and stormed off.
Xander, having tired of dancing without Corey made his way back over to their table and saw a girl moving away from Corey. “Hey, who’s that?”
Corey grinned at Xander, “Some girl who thought she was better than you.”
Xander stared after the girl. “And she’s not?” he asked in a self-depracating tone.
Corey grabbed Xander’s hand and pulled him onto his lap. “Of course not. You’re wonderful and sexy and sweet. And I don’t love her. I love you.”
“Am not…” blushed Xander. Then the rest of what Corey said sank in. “Wait, what?”
“I love you.”
“You’ve never said that before,” whispered Xander. “This is a dream, right?”
“Nope, no dream. Just…”
Xander cut him off with a kiss. He pulled away after a few minutes, grinning sheepishly.
Corey snickered. “I thought you didn’t like doing that in public.”
Xander blushed again. “Special circumstances.”
“What say we move this somewhere else? Like my apartment?” asked Corey, Grinding up into Xander.
“Y-yeah,” he stammered.
Standing a short distance away, Iam watched the display, rage filling his thoughts. He was sure that girl would have had Corey on the dance floor in an instant. Instead, it seemed he and Xander were going to the apartment again. “Bloody hell!” he muttered. “Stupit bint. Can’t trust ‘em. She prob’ly gave up immediately.”
He strode off into the crowd, intent on finding Veronica and discovering what had happened. He spotted her chatting up a short, red-haired boy. “Excuse me,” he said to the boy, before grabbing Veronica’s wrist and pulling her a short distance away. “Well?” he snarled. “What happened?”
“He totally blew me off,” she whined. “Too into that cute brunette. And now you’ve scared Oz off.”
Iam glanced over. The red-head was still standing over there, glaring at him. “Did not. He looks ready to disembowel me, though.”
Just then, Oz walked over. “Done?” he asked, annoyed.
“Yeah, just had a question,” said Iam.
“Really.” The sarcasm lacing that one word conveyed paragraphs of disbelief.
Iam gaped at the young man. How in the world could he say so much by saying so little? “No, I really just had a question. And now it’s answered.”
“Bye.”
Iam stared as the red-head left with Veronica. This town just got weirder and weirder. What next? Vampires and demons? Then he snorted. “Good, Iam. That’s the way to make people think you’re sane. Next thing you know, you’ll think you’re a vampire.”
Dru watched her door intently, waiting, waiting. “Shh, Miss Edith. The shiny car is coming, coming. We will dance under the stars, and sing with them. Yes, you’ll like that? Have you ever seen the stars? They twinkle and dance. Yes, oh, yes. And we’ll get to meet the puppet. I think you’ll like the puppet. Did you know the soul is with the mind now? They were before, and then the touch took the mind away, but now the touch is gone and the mind is back. Oh, yes.”
Ramirez watched in interest as a rough-looking man carried a tea set into the warehouse he was watching. “A tea set? What does he need with a tea set?” he wondered out loud. Gorres was off doing a perimeter sweep, and he wondered if he should follow the man. He was getting out of the car, when a hand on his shoulder caused him to jump. He whirled. “Gorres! You scared the shit out of me!”
“Better me than the chief,” snickered Gorres. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“A man just took a tea set into the building. I was just going to…”
“Hotdog it, and head into a completely unsecured building alone.” Gorres shook her head. “This is just what the chief doesn’t want you to do. If I were to tell her you were even thinking about doing that, you know she’d take your badge.”
“Right, well. What should we do now, oh fount of knowledge?” he asked sarcastically.
“Radio the chief. I think she wants to be here when we crack this. There’s no other vehicles around, aside from the one that belongs to the tea-drinker. But there’s no way of telling how many people are in that building.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll call for back-up. But you get to talk to the chief.”
Rever slid the tea set under the door, then went over to one of the few windows in the warehouse. If he was right, those were cops over there. He’d better get out of here before more came and swarmed over the entire neighborhood. Luckily, and unluckily at the same time, there was sewer access in the building, so he could leave with out them noticing.
He opened the hatch and climbed down, grimacing at the foul stench that wafted up. Rever hoped to whoever was listening that he remember which way to go to get to that payphone.
“Well, what have we got here?”
Xander glanced up in panic. Groaning slightly in fear when he realized they were surrounded, he tried to slide off Corey’s lap. Unfortunately, Corey had a death grip on him, and he couldn’t move.
“Why, I think it’s Xanny, and it looks like he’s got himself a friend,” sing-songed one of the bullies.
“Look at them, all happy and cuddling. It makes me sick!” said another. “I think they need to learn not to… Oof!”
The bully’s speech was cut off by Iam’s fist in his stomach. “That is my friend, and you don’t bother my friends!” He punched the boy in the nose, grinning wildly when he heard a sickening crunch. “And if he wants,” he punched the one who took broken-nose’s place, “to make out,” well-aimed kick to the groin, putting that one out of commission as well, “in public with his boyfriend,” he glared at the last one before advancing, “he bloody well can.”
The last of the bullies backed away from the wild-eyed English boy. “L-look,” he stammered, glancing around desperately, trying to find someone to help him, “we were just having some fun. You know, we weren’t really going to hurt them.”
Iam snorted, “Right, and I didn’t break your friend’s nose.” He took a step toward the other young man. “Unless you want to join your friends, I suggest you leave now.” Laughing, Iam watched as the boy scrambled away, knocking over chairs and bumping into people.
“Iam! Thanks. I thought we were dead,” said Xander, sliding off Corey’s lap. He went over and hugged Iam.
Iam awkwardly placed his arms around Xander, returning the hug. He was acutely aware of the dagger-filled glare Corey had fixed on him. He tried to move away, but Xander tightened his hug and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. Unconsciously, he parted his lips and slid his tongue across Xander’s velvety lips. Xander parted his lips, allowing Iam to deepen the kiss.
“Hey!” snapped Corey. He pulled Xander away from Iam. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Xander stared dazedly at Iam, then at Corey.
Iam stepped away from the angry boy. “Look, I’m sorry. I just got… caught up in the moment.”
“Well, you don’t need to be having any more moments with my boyfriend,” said Corey angrily. “Xan, I believe we were leaving.”
“See you later,” he said to Iam, as he followed Corey toward the exit.
“Why’d you kiss him?” asked Corey once they were outside. “Didn’t you know he’d try something like that?”
Xander blushed. “I guess I didn’t really think about it at all. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry. You didn’t really do anything.” Corey glowered for a second. “He did.”
“Don’t get mad at Iam. He didn’t mean it, I know he didn’t. Just, he’s confused. Doesn’t know what he wants.”
Corey bit his tongue to keep from saying, ‘He wants you. Can’t you see that?’ He took a breath, then pulled Xander close, fingers playing in tousled brown hair. “I do believe we were in the middle of something when those boys interrupted.”